Jan Viktor Mládek (7 December 1911 – 7 August 1989) was initially a Czechoslovak, then an American economist of Polish-Czech origin, governor and one of the executive directors of the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

, art collector and

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

of Central European art.

Life

1911–1948

Jan Viktor Mládek was born into a Czech-Polish family in what was then Austrian-Hungarian Galicia. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the family moved to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. After graduating from the Smíchov real gymnasium (now Gymnázium Na Zatlance) he began studying law in

and completed his studies at the Faculty of Law of

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...

in Brno, where he obtained his doctorate in law in 1936. He also completed two semesters of

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

, but his deeper interest in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

led him to the University of Economics in Prague. He worked briefly in the research department of the National Bank and before the war he left to study with

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

at the Sorbonne in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In England, he studied at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

under

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic ...

and

John M. Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist and philosopher whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originall ...

, with whom he later worked closely during the war on plans for the post-war financial reconstruction and stabilization of European countries. The outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

found Mládek in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where he enlisted in the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

as artillery officer.Josef Tomeš et al.: Český biografický slovník XX. století / Czech Biographical Dictionary of the 20th Century. Volume II: K–P. Prague – Litomyšl: Petr Meissner – Paseka, 1999, p. 394 After its defeat and evacuation to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, he was assigned to the Czechoslovak Ministry of Finance in exile in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Its finance minister, Ladislav Feierabend, tried to persuade the president in exile,

Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1939 to 1948. During the first six years of his second stint, he led the Czec ...

, to establish a ''Czechoslovak National Bank in exile'', but he was unsuccessful. Beneš objected to the proposed members, people associated with the economic system of the First Republic – such as Antonín Basch, a staunch advocate of liberal economics and professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

– but above all, he supported a change in the economic system after the end of the war and envisaged a greater role for the state. Feierabend therefore established only a monetary and banking department within the Ministry of Finance, which he entrusted to Mládek. After the war, Jan Mládek returned to

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and was entrusted with the temporary administration of the

Czech National Bank The Czech National Bank, (, ČNB) is the central bank and financial market supervisor in the Czech Republic, headquartered in Prague. It is a member of the European System of Central Banks. It was established on from the division of the State ...

. Jan V. Mládek, together with Antonín Basch, participated in consultations in the United States in 1943 and 1944, actively working on preparations for the post-war monetary system. They also took part in the preparatory conference in

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

in June 1944, where they represented Czechoslovakia as one of 17 participating countries and where the groundwork was laid for the final monetary and financial conference in July 1944 in Bretton Woods. In Bretton Woods, Czechoslovakia was represented by Chairman Ladislav Karel Feierabend, Vice-Chairman Jan V. Mládek, professors of national economy Antonín Basch and Ervin Exner, and the head of the economic service of the Czechoslovak Embassy in the United States, Josef Hanč. The conference approved the statutes of the

and the

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is an international financial institution, established in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States; it is the lending arm of World Bank Group. The IBRD offers lo ...

and concluded the Bretton Woods Agreements. Czechoslovakia formally acceded to them at a meeting of the Interim National Assembly on 18 December 1945, by approving a government bill on the accession of the Czechoslovak Republic to the agreements on the

and the

, after its unanimous adoption by the Chamber's Budget Committee. The Czechoslovak government signed the

IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of la ...

agreement (Articles of Agreement of the IMF) with the first group of countries on 27 December 1945, making Czechoslovakia a founding member. Among the twelve executive directors of the IMF, Czechoslovak representative Jan Viktor Mládek, who was then head of the currency and banking division of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Finance, was elected in the first elections on 6 May 1946. As governor of IMF (Fund Committee on Rules and Regulations), Mládek represented the interests not only of

, but also of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. In the US, at the request of President

Beneš Beneš (feminine: Benešová) is a Czech surname. The name originated as a pet form of the given names Benedict (given name), Benedikt and Benjamin (name), Benjamin. The Germanization, Germanized form is Benesch and the Anglicized form is Benesh. No ...

, he also worked on the adoption of the

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...

.From 1947, Jan Viktor Mládek represented Czechoslovakia also in the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

1948–1989

After the

1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état In late February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia through a coup d'état. It marked the beginning of four decades of the party's rule in t ...

, Mládek resigned from his position as executive director, requested asylum in United States, and was appointed deputy director of the

's Operations Department. At the request of General McArthur, he was sent to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to resolve financial problems there and to

to wean its finances off dependence on the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. From 1953 to 1959, he was director of the European office and, from 1961, of the newly established African Department. At the request of US President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

, he helped resolve the financial and monetary problems of Southeast Asian countries. From 1964, he headed the

's Central Banking Service. In 1955 in Paris, he met Meda Sokolová when she came to ask him for a financial contribution for her publishing house. Shortly thereafter, she divorced her husband, Belgian nobleman Remi Antoine Joseph de Mûelenaer. In 1956 Meda began studying fine arts at L’École du Louvre at the Sorbonne. In the same year, she met

František Kupka František Kupka (23 September 1871 – 24 June 1957), also known as ''Frank Kupka'' or ''François Kupka,'' was a Czech painter and graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, eit ...

, who was brought to her attention by Mládek's friend, the famous Parisian antiquarian Jacques Kugel. In 1960, Jan Mládek was called back to the headquarters of the

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and Meda followed him there to marry him. In Washington D.C., she studied American literature and art at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

and later at the prestigious

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. Together with her husband, she began building an art collection, the quality of which soon became widely known thanks to the numerous visitors to the Mládek's home. Their friends and acquaintances included the Peroutkas and the Brzezinskis,

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

and

Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political science, political scientist who served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, United S ...

Meda Mládková Marie Magdalena Františka "Meda" Mládková ( Sokolová, 8 September 1919 – 3 May 2022) was a Czech art collector. Her husband, (1911–1989), was an economist and a governor of the IMF. Having spent several years in exile, she returned to Cz ...

began running a social salon, to which she invited artists according to her taste. The Mládek´s did not hesitate to make personal sacrifices to acquire certain works. In order to purchase one of František Kupka's key work, ''Cathedral'', they sold their house in Georgetown. In 1969, Meda Mládková organized an exhibition of Czechoslovak art in Washington, D.C. The works were purchased by Jan Viktor Mládek for his office and for the

. The Mládek couple built up an extensive art collection, which they presented in 1987 at the exhibition "Expressiv: Central European Art since 1960" at the

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

, part of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

in Washington, D.C. A little later, the collection became the basis of their private Foundation and the

Museum Kampa Museum Kampa is a modern art gallery in Prague, Czech Republic, showing Central European, and in particular Czech work. The pieces are from the private collection of Meda Mládek, wife of Jan V. Mládek. The museum opened in 2003 and is housed in ...

. Jan Mládek found it difficult to accept that he was helping many countries around the world but could not help his own homeland. He lectured on Czechoslovakia before a US Congressional committee and supported Czech exiles such as Ladislav Karel Feierabend and

Ferdinand Peroutka Ferdinand Peroutka (6 February 1895 – 20 April 1978) was a Czech journalist and writer. A prominent political thinker and journalist during the First Czechoslovak Republic, Peroutka was persecuted by the Nazi regime for his democratic convict ...

. From 1970 to 1972, he chaired the exile ''Society for Science and Art'' (SVU). In 1975, Meda Mládková was engaged in an exhibition of František Kupka's work at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and

Stanislav Kolíbal Stanislav Kolíbal (born 11 December 1925) is a Czech artist and sculptor. Work His work is counted among the fundamentals of modern Czech art. Since the 1950s, Stanislav Kolíbal has been one of the most notable personalities on the Czech art s ...

at the Livingstone-Clermont Gallery, and accompanied Jan Mládek on his first trip to Czechoslovakia since emigrating in 1948. After retiring in 1977, he worked intensively on plans to rebuild the Czechoslovak economy, but died on 7 August 1989, just before the fall of communist regime in November 1989.Jan Mladek, 77, Dies – Served Monetary Fund, New York Times, 10 August 1989
/ref> In 1995, Dr. Jan V. Mládek was awarded the Medal of Merit, First Class, in memoriam.

Bibliography

* Jan V. Mládek: Mezinárodní finanční instituce Bretton-woodské : výklad a stanovy Mezinárodního měnového fondu a Mezinárodní banky pro obnovu a rozvoj / Bretton Woods International Financial Institutions: Interpretation and Statutes of the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Published by the Ministry of Finance, Prague 1946 * Jan V. Mládek, Světová organisace hospodářství / World Economic Organization, Published by the Czech Economic Society, 1946 * Ladislav Karel Feierabend, Soumrak československé demokracie / The Twilight of Czechoslovak Democracy, Afterword by J. V. Mládek, Rozmluvy Vol. 2, Purley 1988

Life

1911–1948

1948–1989

Bibliography

References

Further reading