Polakovic | Danubiana

Vincent Polakovič

Vincent Polakovič was born on November 19, 1958 in Poprad. Together with his wife Katarína, they have two children, their son Vincent and daughter Veronika. After graduating from law school at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice in 1982, he worked at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Poprad before going into private practice from 1991 to 2003.

In the summer of 1990, he made a trip in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh, visiting all of the places where the famous Dutch artist lived and created. Inspired by this journey, he opened the now legendary Yellow House of Vincent van Gogh in Poprad on September 9, 1993, where he organized exhibitions of Slovak and foreign artists. He also organized several exhibitions of Slovak painters and sculptors abroad, primarily in the Netherlands and Belgium.

In 1994, he met Gerard Meulensteen in the Netherlands, and in 1999 they started construction of the first private museum of modern art in Slovakia. Located just south of Bratislava, at the Čunovo water dam, the museum was officially opened on September 9, 2000. On the same day, the Yellow House Gallery in Poprad officially closed, but its activities continued in the new institution, which was named the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum. Later that year Vincent Polakovič was awarded the Prize of the Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic for the implementation of this project. He was the Danubiana’s first director and continues to serve in this position.

During his time at the Danubiana, he has organized more than 250 exhibitions, both independently and with the help of art collectors, selected curators, museums and domestic and foreign cultural institutions. To date, the museum has presented the works of more than 1,000 domestic and foreign artists from more than 40 countries.

He is the author or co-author of over thirty publications on fine arts, as well as art catalogs of the works of Karel Appel, Sam Francis, Ad Snijders, Zoltán and Madeleine Kemeny, Sikora- Keseru, Peter Pollág, Miró and Cobra, Markus Prachensky and others.

In late 2011, together with Gerard Meulensteen, they donated the Danubiana to the Slovak Republic and its artists, and thanks to the financial support of the Slovak Government, an additional pavilion dedicated to the Danubiana’s permanent collection was opened on September 9, 2014. It was selected as the Building of the Year by an international jury.

In September 2014, Heinz Fischer, the President of the Republic of Austria, awarded him the highest Austrian state honor, the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art, for promoting Austrian art in Slovakia.

Similarly, in 2017, Zoltán Balog, the Hungarian Minister of Human Resources, granted him the Pro Cultura Hungarica ministerial award for his work in culture and, in particular, for the promotion of Hungarian art in Slovakia.

In its fourteenth year, the Danubiana received the Július Satinský prize: the Bratislava Blueberry, in the “Idea – action” category for its extraordinary contribution to culture.

On March 11, 2019, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander appointed Vincent Polakovič, Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau for his extraordinary and long-term, service to society, the state, and the royal family. This decoration was presented to him by Henk Cor van der Kwast, the Dutch ambassador to Slovakia, on the occasion of the celebration of 25 years of bilateral relations between Slovakia and the Netherlands. He became only the fifth Slovak to receive this important award.

On December 8, 2023, the Tatra Gallery in Poprad awarded him the prize of Prof. Martin Slivka, for his extraordinary contribution in the field of Slovak culture.

Currently, in addition to managing the museum, organizing exhibitions, acquiring works of art for the museum’s permanent collection and publishing books about visual artists, he and the board of directors of the DANUBIANA non-profit organization, are preparing further additions to the museum, in particular, a pavilion of creative art and a Danube pavilion dedicated to the Danube River.

Exhibitions organized by Vincent Polakovič in Slovakia and abroad (Holland, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Syria, among others) have been seen by more than a million visitors and admirers of art not only from Slovakia, but around the world.





  • Vladimír Kompánek and V.P.
  • Vladimír Popovič and V.P.
  • V.P. and Ján Kelemen
  • Vladimír Popovič and V.P.
  • V.P. and Guy Pieters
  • Hans Van de Bovenkamp and V.P.
  • Svetozár Ilavský and V.P.
  • Vladimír Kompánek, V.P. and Tibor Bartfay
  • Bert Loerakker and V.P.
  • V.P. and Ilona Keserü Ilona
  • V.P. and Viera Kraicová
  • Karol Kállay and V.P.
  • Kamil Peteraj and V.P.
  • Milan Laluha and V.P.
  • Jozef Jankovič, Mark Brusse and V.P.
  • V.P. and Stano Filko
  • Yuri Dojč and V.P.
  • Hannes Mlenek and V.P.
  • Bahram Hajou and V.P.
  • Christian Ludwig Attersee and V.P.
  • Jan Hřebejk and V.P.
  • Gerard Meulensteen, Stepan Ryabchenko and V.P.
  • Milan Lukáč and V.P.
  • Michal Uher and V.P.
  • Gerard Rancinan and V.P.
  • Orit Hofshi and V.P.
  • Robert Vano and V.P.
  • Magdalena Abakanowicz and V.P.
  • Setsuko Klossowska de Rola - Balthus and V.P.