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Saturday marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Czech painter Alphonse Mucha. Mucha was born in the Moravian town of Ivančice, but found fame in Paris when a poster he designed for a play starring Sarah Bernhardt became an overnight sensation. The artist then produced a great number of paintings, posters, advertisements, book illustrations and other items in a style that became known as Art Nouveau. He died in 1939 after catching pneumonia while being interrogated by the Gestapo. A travelling exhibition marking the anniversary of his birth has been organised by the Mucha Foundation, which is headed by the painter’s grandson.

Parts of Czech painter Alphonse Mucha’s work the Slav Epic will be carefully crated up on Monday as movers start taking it from its current home in the town of Moravský Krumlov to Prague. The late artist’s family is against this step, and is still fighting a legal battle in an effort to block it. But what significance does the loss of the 20-canvass masterpiece have for the small town of Moravský Krumlov, which has housed it since the 1950s?

Several dozen people protested on Thursday the removal of Alphonse Mucha’s monumental Slav Epic from the Moravian town of Moravský Krumlov. The art nouveau artwork, composed of 20 large canvasses, has been on display there for nearly 50 years. However, its owner, the city of Prague, is planning to move it to the Czech capital.

One of the best known Czech visual artists, the Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha, was born in July 1860. To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Mucha Foundation is launching an exhibition called The Apotheosis of Love. The exhibit opens in Prague on Friday, before moving on to several other locations in the Czech Republic.

In related news, a court in Prague refused on Tuesday to issue a restricting order, as requested by the painter Alfons Mucha’s family, to prevent the Slav Epic from being moved to Prague. The artist’s grandson John Mucha told the Czech news agency ČTK that the court’s decision was “sad” and would not help the future of the art work. Mr Mucha also said he would keep working to make sure the paintings are eventually exhibited in an appropriate venue in the Czech capital.

Documents discovered in a Prague archive might free the way for moving a significant Czech artwork, the Slav Epic, to Prague, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported on Tuesday. The documents suggest that the series of 20 large paintings by the Czech Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha were not donated to the city of Prague by the artist himself, but rather by his patron, Charles Crane. Until now it has been believed that the painter donated the paintings to the city of Prague on the condition that the city’s authorities house it in an appropriate space.

If proven right, this would mean that the city could move the paintings from Moravský Krumlov, where they have been on display for the last 50 years, to the capital, a plan opposed by Mucha’s descendants. Prague City Hall has been planning to move the paintings in mid July anyway, and display them in the National Gallery in the autumn.

When the artist Alfons Mucha died in 1939, he left his masterpiece of 20 canvasses entitled the Slav Epic, to the City of Prague – but on the condition that an appropriate space be built for it. This has not happened to date and now the city would like to remove the work from the chateau in Moravský Krumlov where it is currently housed and install it in Prague’s Veletržní Palác. The Mucha family, however, is opposed, and is filing for an injunction against the city to keep the paintings where they are until they are given a permanent residence.

The late Czech painter Alfons Mucha’s family has filed a temporary restraining order to prevent that the painter’s masterpiece, the Slav Epic, being moved to Prague’s Veletržní Palác. The Mucha family and the Mucha foundation oppose the move of the 20-canvass work on grounds that it is merely a temporary solution. The city of Prague, which owns the Slav Epic, has said the move is due to the bad condition of Moravský Krumlov castle, where the work is currently on display. Alfons Mucha donated the gigantic Slav Epic, among the Czech nation’s best known and most recognizable pieces of art, to Prague, on the condition that the city’s authorities house it in an appropriate space. However, this has not happened to date.

The authorities in Prague have turned down a request from a Japanese institution to borrow an enormous series of works by the Czech Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha. Japan’s NHK promotions had wanted to bring the 20-painting Slav Epic to a Tokyo museum in 2012, and had offered to pay for its restoration. But Prague councillors voted on Tuesday to deny the request, saying instead that the Slav Epic would be moved from its current home in Moravský Krumlov to the capital’s Výstaviště exhibition grounds in September. However, it is not clear whether the city intends to build a dedicated home for the monumental artwork, which was a condition set by Mucha when he donated it to Prague in 1928.

Prague city council should discuss on Tuesday a Japanese offer to restore Czech painter Alphonse Mucha’s Slav Epic series of paintings in return for their exhibition in Tokyo. The Japanese want to exhibit the massive series of 20 paintings for three months in 2012. The paintings were bestowed to Prague by the artist but are now exhibited at a castle in Moravský Krumlov. Mucha has been credited as the inspiration for many current Japanese manga or comic strip artists.