Ten years ago, after The Friends of Czech Heritage had just been founded, we held our first lecture, given by Jonathan Marsden, currently Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art and Director of the Royal Collection. He worked in the North Wales region of the National Trust and was instrumental in arranging the two-way cooperation of conservators from the NT and the Czech Heritage Institute from the early 1990s, just after the Velvet Revolution. He later continued this work.
On 31st August 2017 Jonathan Marsden received the award 'Amicis Artis Bohemiae' in the Czech Ambassador's residence in London, presented in person by the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic and in the presence of the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Court of St James's, H.E. Mr Libor Sečka, and of Mr Jan Brunner (Minister Councillor) and Mr Ondřej Hovádek (Third Secretary).
Photograph, left to right, Czech Minister of Culture Mgr. Daniel Herman, Jonathan Marsden, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Court of St James's H.E. Mr Libor Sečka. Photograph ©I.Kennaway