CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos and William Rudolf Lobkowicz within the Family Chapel of the Lobkowicz Palace depicting an early 18th-century altarpiece portray of St. Wenceslas, patron saint of the Czech nation.
House of Lobkowicz
PRAGUE — It is previous midnight on a Friday on the Lobkowicz Palace within the Prague Castle complicated. A 27-year-old Czech prince, William Rudolf Lobkowicz, is crawling on the exhausting stone ground, taking care not to set off the alarms behind the guardrails that partition the fort’s daytime guests from the Sixteenth-century portraits hanging on the stone partitions.
He’s attempting to discover an outlet so he can plug a 30-foot extension wire into the wall. The wire powers digital camera gear to be utilized in a dwell broadcast occurring round 1 a.m. which is able to characteristic the story of his family on a CNBC primetime present in New York. Lobkowicz can be behind the digital camera for the shot, however that does not matter to him. He merely needs to share one of many world’s best non-public collections of masterworks with the general public.
A younger prince in an historical fort stashed with priceless artwork seems like the start of a fairytale, however his life is much from a Disney adaptation.
The palace feels extra like a crypt. At the peak of Bohemian summer season, the humidity clings to our pores and skin, and it’s pitch black past the glow of the stark fluorescent lighting that runs alongside the excessive stone ceilings. Each time Lobkowicz comes to a door, he reaches down to a cumbersome keyring that appears prefer it belongs to a monk in a monastery and fumbles for the proper key to let him by way of — and there are dozens of doorways on every ground. Each door leads us deeper into the darkish stone labyrinth, deeper into the previous.
William Rudolf Lobkowicz strolling by way of the Prague Castle complicated.
House of Lobkowicz
He and his family don’t dwell on this or any of their different ancestral castles or palaces. Instead, they dwell in private flats a ten-minute drive away. To keep previous 10 P.M. on a Friday evening, Lobkowicz has to get particular permission from the navy guards who patrol the grounds.
William, his two sisters, and dad and mom have devoted their life’s work to sustaining what’s left of their ancestral heritage: Three castles, one palace, 20,000 moveable artifacts, a library of roughly 65,000 uncommon books, 5,000 musical artifacts and compositions — together with an early copy of Beethoven’s fifth symphony — and 30,000 packing containers and folios, a few of which have by no means been opened. All of it was stolen, twice. First by the Nazis, then by the Communists.
“You know, most individuals see the gorgeous artworks and castles and suppose that this all comes extremely simple,” Lobkowicz says from the Habsburg Room, a portrait gallery on the second ground of the palace. “But in actuality, behind the scenes, we’re working tirelessly day and evening to preserve and shield this stuff. Nobody’s going to care about this stuff as a lot as we do.”
William Rudolf Lobkowicz inspecting outdated family images within the Lobkowicz Archives.
House of Lobkowicz
His voice is drained at this late hour, however his youthful enthusiasm nonetheless shines by way of.
To shield his family’s previous, Lobcowicz has embraced the long run. The world of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens is intangible and summary, a assortment of mathematical formulation working on computer systems unfold all around the world. The younger prince has turned to these digital instruments to safeguard and restore the artifacts that maintain a lot nostalgic worth for the family — and, he hopes, for among the remainder of the world, as effectively.
“It’s not nearly selling NFTs to assist cultural monuments, but it surely’s additionally taking a look at how will we preserve a report of our historical past?” explains William. “Blockchain expertise gives an immutable report of our cultural heritage, which you’ll be able to preserve on chain, and that is one thing that is by no means been accomplished earlier than.”
CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos excursions Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle with William Rudolf Lobkowicz.
House of Lobkowicz
An immutable report
The palace is housed inside the Hrad, the title given by locals to Prague Castle, which looms over the town. The sprawling complicated was as soon as the seat of Bohemian kings. Now, it is dwelling to Czech presidents — and The Lobkowicz Collections, a physique of labor relationship again greater than 2,000 years.
The collections, which have been painstakingly re-assembled over 25 years by way of a course of generally known as restitution, characteristic world-famous work by Bellotto, Bruegel, Canaletto, Cranach, Rubens, and Veronese, in addition to ceramics spanning 5 centuries, 1,200 items of arms and armor, and string and wind devices, together with trumpets gilded in gold and adorned with rubies. The assortment additionally contains early manuscripts and scores, together with a number of Beethoven symphonies and his Opus 18 String Quartets, some marked with the composer’s unique corrections.
The Lobkowiczes take none of this without any consideration. Their castles and artifacts have been stolen twice by two totally different authoritarian regimes.
Lobkowicz Palace (a part of the Prague Castle complicated).
House of Lobkowicz
In CNBC’s first dialog with William — a almost two-hour Zoom name from New York to Prague — he shared a translated quote from Jan Viktor Mládek, a member of Czechoslovakia’s post-communist authorities and a former International Monetary Fund official: “When a nation’s tradition survives, so too does the nation.”
William has turned over that line in his head fairly a few occasions within the final couple years since making this mission his life’s work. To him, the energy of a nation rests on preserving the cultural roots which outline it.
After the autumn of the Soviet Union in 1991, the democratically elected president of the newly shaped Czechoslovakia handed restitution legal guidelines enabling Czechs to declare again property stolen below Communist rule. William Sr., then 29 years outdated, heeded the decision and uprooted his life as a actual property dealer in Boston to return to Prague.
William Lobkowicz Sr. inspecting injury to the inside courtyard façade of Nelahozeves Castle.
House of Lobkowicz
There’s no definitive “how to” handbook on restoring stolen gadgets to their rightful proprietor. It’s a convoluted train that includes submitting hundreds of separate claims and can take a long time. Some of the claims fail, or are by no means resolved.
“When we first got here again to the Czech Republic and restitution started, it was the Wild West, and you actually did not have any marketing strategy in any respect,” explains the youthful William of his father’s quest.
William Sr. traversed the nation in a small Škoda Favorit, carrying with him the meticulous lists stored by the Communists after they confiscated the family’s artifacts.
Alexandra Lobkowicz with a colleague observing the renovation of the Balcony Room of the Lobkowicz Palace, c. 2005.
House of Lobkowicz
“Our objects have been taken to over 100 places, so we crisscrossed Czechoslovakia to get well tens of hundreds of movable objects,” he stated. “We most likely coated a whole bunch of hundreds of miles.”
Once the property was reclaimed, the family had to work out how to pay to restore it. William’s grandfather, Martin, cashed in his pension and gave it to William Sr., telling him to “strive not to lose all of it” — and that was it when it comes to upfront capital commitments.
Covering the prices of restoration is the family’s enterprise, and makes up a full-time job for every member of the Lobkowicz family, full with weekly enterprise conferences on Tuesdays. (Sunday is reserved for private updates at family dinner.)
But preserving the enterprise afloat has been a hustle, requiring more and more artistic monetary acrobatics.
The Lobkowicz family, 2019.
House of Lobkowicz
Collections belonging to the Lobkowiczes have been declared Czech cultural monuments, to allow them to’t promote any items to assist pay to restore the remainder. Meanwhile, conventional philanthropy channels are working dry as museum patronage continues to fall.
To make a unhealthy scenario worse, the state has strict guidelines governing restoration protocols which may gradual the renovation course of and make it costlier. There can also be fierce competitors for a restricted variety of grants earmarked to fund cultural heritage tasks. Castle possession is not a lot of a novelty in Europe, and particularly not within the Czech Republic, which ranks amongst one of many continent’s prime locations for essentially the most castles per sq. mile. In reality, some state governments and cities are auctioning off castles below their custodianship, as a result of they do not have the money to preserve them.
To maintain every part afloat, the Lobcowiczes have generated earnings from issues like fort excursions, the present store, and internet hosting occasions akin to weddings and company retreats. It additionally means interesting to donors, making use of for grants from the federal government, and securing loans — typically at sky-high rates of interest.
“My father had to take out loans with 20% revolving curiosity, constantly asking the banks for extensions,” the youthful William stated of the early days, when his father first started restoring the family’s castles and artifacts.
Alexandra Lobkowicz organizing c. Seventeenth-century looking rifles from the Lobkowicz Collections onto new shelving within the Lobkowicz depository.
House of Lobkowicz
Fortunately, William Sr. had a devoted associate within the quest.
A yr into his new life in Prague, the elder William’s girlfriend (now spouse of 30 years), Sandra Florescu, flew over to assist him. Coming to Prague meant leaving her function as a sixth grade instructor in Boston’s Back Bay, however she by no means stopped being an educator.
She has launched and run a number of academic packages in reference to the collections, together with the junior curator program, which is now being modeled by faculties around the globe.
It helps that she hung out on the Sorbonne in Paris, learning high-quality arts.
The couple appeared destined for one another, with intertwining family histories that return centuries.
In the early 1600s, their ancestors, who have been diplomats and advisors to their respective kings in Bohemia and Romania, met in Prague to strategize about how to defeat the Turks who have been threatening the Habsburg Empire. Fast ahead to the early Twenties, when Sandra’s grandfather, Radu Florescu — who had two diplomatic postings in Prague — possible crossed paths with the elder William’s grandfather, Max, additionally a diplomat. They have been reunited in London throughout World War II, each serving their respective nations’ battle in opposition to the Nazis.
Sandra and William, too, have been serendipitously linked as refugees and younger adults residing in Beacon Hill in Boston.
Sandra first noticed her now husband from the window of her condominium, years earlier than they really met in individual. William Sr. was booming out the lyrics to “Chanson d’Amour” that was taking part in on his Walkman, getting ready for live shows he carried out within the space with the hopes of turning into a skilled opera singer sooner or later.
Alexandra and William Lobkowicz with child William Rudolf opening their first exhibition in 1995.
House of Lobkowicz
Safeguarding these reminiscences and these of their ancestors — in addition to the cultural legacy they collectively fought to restore — is the place their son’s blockchain ambitions come into sight.
“We’ve handled dropping our collections twice and regaining them twice as a results of authoritarian regimes, however the best way we received them again was truly by way of the receipts they stored,” defined the youthful William.
Both regimes tracked the method and the provenance historical past of those items, so William Sr. was in a position to hint possession and determine the place that they had been over time. Cryptocurrency blockchains — an immutable ledger tracing the provenance of digital artifacts — are an up to date model of these meticulous lists stored by authoritarian regimes.
Only this time, the ability to observe these artifacts is within the palms of the rightful house owners.
Nazi officers observing plans throughout their occupation of Roudnice Castle in 1939. The fort was was an SS coaching camp.
House of Lobkowicz
The insurgent princes
“What I’m doing proper now, I do not suppose is any totally different from any of my predecessors. Each prince did one thing utterly totally different based mostly upon the occasions they lived in,” William stated.
The Lobkowicz princes have a historical past of being rebels, every breaking custom in their very own manner.
Take the seventh prince, Franz Joseph Maximilian (1772-1816), who made a massive wager on Ludwig van Beethoven again when the composer was nonetheless a relative unknown. Beethoven famously integrated a further French horn into his orchestra for the Eroica symphony at a time when folks thought that sort of sound was blasphemous.
Joseph gave the renegade composer an annual stipend, in addition to musicians and live performance areas, almost bankrupting the House of Lobkowicz within the course of. While the prince was his patron, Beethoven was free to compose music that revolutionized the symphonic world. In return, Beethoven would dedicate a few of his best works to the Prince, together with his third (Eroica), fifth, and sixth (Pastoral) Symphonies.
Renovated Beethoven Room on the Lobkowicz Palace.
House of Lobkowicz
Then there was William’s nice grandfather, Maximilian Lobkowicz (1888-1967), who realized that the world of his princely predecessors was turning into out of date. The finish of World War I introduced the autumn of the Austo-Hungarian Empire and the rise of unbiased nation states, together with a democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia.
Max, then a younger lawyer and Czech patriot, embraced and supported the democratic beliefs of this new republic. When hereditary titles have been abolished with the formation of the brand new state, he gladly forfeited his aristocratic label. It was a break from custom so profound that his personal father, Ferdinand Zdenko (1858-1938), refused to converse to Max for a decade.
In addition to his Bohemian princely pedigree on his father’s facet, William’s maternal line traces again to a prime minister in Bucharest and an historical and noble Romanian boyar family. He additionally has blood ties to the real-world noble upon whom Bram Stoker based mostly his legendary Count Dracula — the world’s most well-known fictional vampire.
CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos excursions Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle with William Rudolf Lobkowicz.
House of Lobkowicz
Despite lineage linking him to noble households throughout Europe, Lobkowicz can also be very American. His paternal grandfather started his profession as a door-to-door salesman selling Cutco knives after marrying a dentist’s daughter from Kentucky.
William dropped his British accent for an American one on the age of seven and fried mozzarella sticks at Harvard’s Eliot House Grille to earn pocket money in faculty.
Even although he made the Forbes “30 below 30” record final yr, the prince does not personal a automobile and takes a tram to work.
He provides fort excursions in free pockets of time through the day to financial institution money for the restoration fund, whereas concurrently working the digital innovation initiatives for House of Lobkowicz.
William Rudolf Lobkowicz welcoming visitors at Non-Fungible Castle 2021.
House of Lobkowicz
Now he is making use of that humble renegade spirit to be taught every part he can concerning the expertise he believes can assist preserve the family legacy.
Every summer season, the world’s prime blockchain builders and cryptographers descend on Paris to hack, code, and discuss store. The flagship occasion is a conference called EthCC (quick for Ethereum Community Conference), however the principle attraction has given rise to dozens of ancillary gatherings specializing in subjects working the gamut from web3 and ethereum’s rival blockchains — to the metaverse.
The variety of programming and folks is why Lobkowicz headed to Paris once more this yr. He does not go to converse on panels or attend blowout events at venues like the long-lasting Moulin Rouge. Instead, he prefers to fly below the radar, sitting on the periphery of an viewers however all the time listening intently.
For him, unlocking the potential of blockchain expertise comes down to talking with builders on the bottom to create technical options to the very real-world issues he faces on a day by day foundation.
“Crypto is a software to proceed engaged on the issues we’re doing. It’s like a membership card to a entire world of historical past and tradition,” he stated.
NFT Gut Shot on show (subsequent to the unique portray) on the Lobkowicz Palace, the sale of which financed the restoration of a number of portraits of officers within the Lobkowicz Collections.
House of Lobkowicz
So far, the prince has tried out a couple alternative ways to incorporate blockchain expertise into his work with The Lobkowicz Collections. Most profitable to date has been selling NFTs to assist particular conservation wants.
The family takes a portray that wants restoration and mints a picture of the portray as an NFT. The provenance of the donation and donor can also be included on chain. From there, they set the worth of the NFT at the price of the restoration of the bodily work tied to the token. The one that buys the NFT then receives a second NFT on the finish of the restoration course of as a token of their patronage.
“We try to convey folks on the journey of philanthropy and be utterly clear with them about the place their cash goes,” defined William.
Thus far, the House of Lobkowicz has efficiently financed greater than 50 artwork restoration tasks by way of this proof-of-patronage philanthropic mannequin — together with a Seventeenth century portray, “A Wild Boar in a Landscape,” which was featured in Wes Anderson’s movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”
Paintings from the Lobkowicz Collections awaiting their restoration in an atelier, financed by the sale of NFTs throughout Non-Fungible Castle 2021.
House of Lobkowicz
Collectively, the family has raised $300,000 by way of the sale of NFTs.
When requested whether or not he was frightened about the truth that the worth of NFTs has fallen off a cliff in the previous couple of months, Lobkowicz stated that the growth and bust cycle of the market does not actually have an effect on their enterprise mannequin. If a restoration prices $4,000, that’s precisely what they cost for the piece — and it both sells or it does not.
He additionally sees NFTs as a manner to unlock new methods of reaching a extra various viewers and creating a neighborhood of patrons and supporters who’re fascinated about interacting with their collections in a extra progressive manner.
“It’s vital for folks to perceive that this is not about simply JPEGs connected to a digital receipt — we’re speaking about totally different functions that may change the best way we construct communities of people that care about tradition and see the potential of utilizing web3 expertise to preserve it,” defined Lobkowicz.
Non-Fungible Castle 2021 Exhibition on the Lobkowicz Palace.
House of Lobkowicz
POAPs — or Proof of Attendance Protocol — are a subset of NFTs that function a type of attendance sheet for occasions, or particular experiences. The prince plans to take a look at out POAPs through the subsequent installment of Non–Fungible Castle, an annual exhibition and convention (working Nov. 4–5 in Prague) that bridges the most important names in conventional artwork to the world of web3 and crypto.
“We will create POAPs for experiences that you’ve there, whether or not you are getting bread and salt (a conventional Czech invitation ritual) as you enter the beginning home of the world-renowned Czech nationwide composer Antonín Dvořák — otherwise you’re listening to a string quartet,” he stated.
POAPs might additionally in the end be used to improve ticketing and membership packages for museums.
Also on Lobkowicz’s to-do record for the following few months? Getting into quadratic funding, which is a manner to crowd-raise a central crypto treasury that’s then used to fund public items tasks within the ethereum ecosystem — all with the assistance of an algorithm designed to optimize spending selections.
William Rudolf Lobkowicz explains to CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos the renovation technique of the Chinese Belvedere room inside Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle.
House of Lobkowicz
Most just lately, he is been testing out functions within the metaverse.
Lobkowicz labored with Somnium — a digital actuality world constructed on the ethereum blockchain — to put one of many rooms within the palace in Prague into the metaverse.
The family offered an NFT corresponding to the three-month restoration of this room, generally known as the Chinese Belvedere, for $79,000 to Oxb1, a well-known crypto influencer.
A glance contained in the Chinese Belvedere room within the metaverse.
House of Lobkowicz
A glance contained in the Chinese Belvedere room within the metaverse.
House of Lobkowicz
It’s a take a look at case that might show helpful because the family strikes to restore different properties in pressing want of restore.
Take Roudnice Castle, a 40 minute drive north of Prague. To restore the 200-room palace to its former grandeur would immediately require tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
It already prices a small fortune to warmth the fort within the winter simply sufficient to maintain the pipes from freezing and bursting open. In the summer season, leaks are commonplace, just like the one which cropped up on a Saturday morning throughout my keep in Prague. That can translate into main injury, mildew, and even collapsing ceilings.
The ongoing upkeep and renovations have additionally been difficult by adjustments made through the 41-year Soviet occupation, together with retrofitting a live performance corridor with a basketball courtroom.
Roudnice Castle, the previous ducal seat and residence of the Lobkowicz family.
House of Lobkowicz
Another execution, although nonetheless in its infancy, is popping Renaissance portraits of robes worn by girls of the courtroom into gaming skins – a market value $40 billion globally.
William can also be interested by digitizing the family’s stockpile of historic weapons to promote as NFTs (full with the story of their provenance) to be utilized in a gaming setting.
That would additionally assist with the $400,000 price ticket to restore and catalogue their stock – which is likely one of the most vital non-public arms collections in Europe.
CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos and Ileana Lobkowicz leaving the Arms Room of the Lobkowicz Palace, that includes Seventeenth–18th century navy and looking rifles and a three-quarter swimsuit of armor.
House of Lobkowicz
A princess saving historical past by way of tales
It is a week later, on one other Friday night at virtually midnight in Prague, besides this time, I’m on the other facet of the Atlantic Ocean, and I’m talking with a totally different Lobkowicz — William’s youthful sister, Ileana. (Their youngest sister, Sophia, is a rising junior at Trinity College in Connecticut, however stays intently related to her family’s work.)
The 25-year-old princess embraces all the ethereal qualities one would possibly affiliate with aristocracy, effortlessly moving into her birthright and assuming the old-world obligations which accompany it.
Ileana and her mom, Sandra, giving a historic tour of the Lobkowicz Collections, highlighting the heroine tales that formed its historical past.
House of Lobkowicz
“These titles will not be one thing we use or introduce ourselves with to others in our day to day lives. It’s a part of our historical past, but it surely does not change the work we’re attempting to do or the values we have now,” she says.
The title that Ileana does embrace is Writer and Storyteller for House of Lobkowicz — a corporation which encompasses the non-profit initiatives of The Lobkowicz Collections, in addition to the occasions administration firm, vineyard, amongst different companies falling below the Lobkowicz umbrella.
The function fits her effectively. While a philosophy main at Boston College, Ileana launched her writing profession with the net pupil journal ‘The Gavel,’ the place she wasn’t afraid to converse reality to energy and provide a platform to contrarian voices. Later, she shared hidden tales of Bohemia in a column referred to as “In Search of Prague,” and in her free time, she is at the moment creating a life-style weblog that launches later this yr and builds upon her expertise of custodianship by way of storytelling.
Ileana Lobkowicz within the Baroque Music Room on the Lobkowicz Palace.
House of Lobkowicz
At work, Ileana has made it her private mission not solely to share her family’s story, however to convey ahead the narratives of her feminine ancestors who have been quietly saving the day whereas letting the limelight fall on their male family members.
Take Princess Polyxena Lobkowicz (1566-1642), a politically energetic and prolific determine throughout Bohemia. During the Defenestration of Prague — an incident which triggered the Thirty Years’ War, one of many bloodiest conflicts in European historical past that killed one-third of Europe’s inhabitants — an indignant mob of members of the Protestant estates didn’t dare cross Polyxena’s path. The princess wielded no weapon, but her presence proved a highly effective drive.
Or Gillian Somerville (1890-1982), the spouse of Maximilian, the noble who gladly dropped his title in tandem with the beginning of democracy in Bohemia. In 1939, she overheard German officers on a prepare to London speaking concerning the upcoming invasion of Czechoslovakia. She rapidly wired Max to warn him, and he managed to escape to England, leaving Czechoslovakia two days earlier than the Nazis invaded.
A letter from an Italian composer and violinist Francesco Geminiani addressed to Ferdinand Phillipp, sixth Prince Lobkowicz, dated 1748.
House of Lobkowicz
Finally, in a story that appears ripe for Hollywood, The Lobkowicz Collections can also be dwelling to an trade of letters written between Princess de Lamballe — the lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette, whose sister was married to the sixth Prince Lobkowicz — her cousin Karl Emanuel Hessen Rheinfels Rotenburg, and his spouse, Leopoldine Liechtenstein.
The trade, which hasn’t been seen earlier than, gives first–hand accounts of what it was like throughout Marie Antoinette’s closing days throughout her jail keep within the Bastille, simply earlier than her beheading.
“I see my function and impression in our family’s work as being the voice by way of which tales — from the previous, current, and future — could be shared, preserved, and celebrated. I really feel it’s the finest and solely manner I can honor my ancestors — and for that matter, my descendants too,” Ileana says. “We cannot be caught previously, however we won’t neglect it both.”
To that finish, she and William have launched a particular sequence of NFTs which capitalize upon supply materials that wasn’t given its simply due in its day.
Take “Forgotten Menuet” — an NFT of an animated piece of music composed by Anna Maria Wilhelmina Althann (1703-1754), unheard for over 250 years.
“In addition to bringing to life the music itself, it additionally pays homage to the unrecognized ancestor, as a result of on the time, she did not obtain any acknowledgement for her musical expertise,” Ileana tells me as we stand adjoining the glass-encased show containing Anna Maria’s handwritten lute music.
That NFT has since been placed on exhibit in a digital museum within the metaverse.
Menuet, an early 18th-century lute tablature composed by Anna Maria Wilhelmina Althann, spouse of the 4th Prince Lobkowicz, displayed on the Lobkowicz Palace.
House of Lobkowicz
“It’s loopy to consider conceptually, as a result of that is a piece of music that hasn’t been performed in 250 years, and additionally would have solely been carried out in very small non-public areas. Now it has the power to be all around the globe for anybody to take pleasure in,” stated William.
Another NFT from this sequence animates X-ray and infrared photographs so to see by way of to the invisible layers of a canvas which were painted over. A 3rd options a digital rendering of the degrading sgraffito from the Sixteenth-century façade of Nelahozeves Castle.
“We should take our historical past with us into the long run by making it related immediately,” Ileana explains.
William Rudolf Lobkowicz and CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos within the Baroque Concert Hall of the Lobkowicz Palace that includes Seventeenth-century frescoes.
House of Lobkowicz