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In last week's edition of the Arts, Radio Prague's David Vaughan reported on the extensive damage done to the Museum of Central Bohemia in the little town of Roztoky during last month's floods. A few week's ago in Newsview, we featured an interview with Leo Pavlat, the director of the Jewish Museum in Prague about the state of Prague's Jewish Quarter. In this week's Arts, join Dita Asiedu as she takes a look at the damage recorded by other galleries and museums affected by the floods.

One of the enduring images of last month's floods was the site of a wooden sculpture, a giant chair that had adorned the terrace of the Sovovy Mlyny Gallery in Prague, being swept like a child's toy down the River Vltava. The damage caused by last month's floods to museums and galleries around the Czech Republic is shocking, and the fate of that unusual wooden sculpture was by no means unique. In Prague there was also damage to the Museum of Czech Music by the Charles Bridge and the Saint Agnes Convent just downstream, housing the National Gallery's

The devastating floods in the Czech Republic in mid-August caused enormous material damage, and the cultural sphere was not spared either. Although the Minister of Culture, Pavel Dostal has asked the cabinet for 350 million crowns, it's extremely difficult to find financial means in the state coffers, and so only 10 million crowns have been allocated for repairing flood-affected historical monuments and other heavily damaged cultural assets. The total damage has been estimated in billions - by now, it's around 3 billion crowns, but this sum is not

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Jan Kollar, a Slovak poet - and in fact the first big poet of modern Slovak literature - priest and diligent promoter of Slavic culture during the period which is known as Czech and Slovak National Revival. An exhibition opened at the National Museum in Prague to acquaint people with this great 19th century Slovak man.

Last weekend, the administration of the Lysice chateau in South Moravia organized for the first time night-time guided tours of the chateau. More that 550 tourists could admire interiors on the first floor of the building where there are representation halls, libraries and an armoury.

Last month, the internationally famous Czech mezzosoprano, Dagmar Peckova, launched a new CD, featuring the most popular arias from George Bizet's opera Carmen. The CD also features Peckova's colleagues, singers Valentin Prolat, Ivan Kusnjer and Roman Janal. For her role of Carmen, which the singer started performing three years ago as her first role at the National Theatre in Prague, Peckova received the Thalia Prize last year, which is awarded to the most outstanding actor, singer and dancer of the year. "Carmen - that's me" Peckova was quoted

In the Arts this week, we take a trip to the exciting Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, attend the glitzy opening ceremony and speak to several of this year's special guests. Among our interviewees, actor Stephen Fry sings the praises of the beautiful spa town itself, while actor-director Jean-Marc Barr enthuses about the friendliness and openness of the festival, which is one of the most enjoyable cultural events of the year in the Czech Republic. Join Ian Willoughby in Karlovy Vary for the Arts.

This year it was for the third time that the United Nations' World Refugee Day was commemorated. The plight of millions refugees in the world is the theme of an exhibition which opens on July 19th in the Imperial Stables at Prague Castle.

In this week's 'Arts', Dita Asiedu speaks to sculptor, painter and author Otto Piene - known around the world for his unique visual art and introduces you to a celebration of Czech-German-Jewish culture, currently underway here in the Czech Republic:

A new exhibition is underway at Prague's Municipal House, featuring works by the famous Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha. Although Mucha has his own museum in Prague, the pictures exhibited in the Municipal House were borrowed from abroad and this is a unique opportunity for Czech art lovers to see them.