Restoration project of the National History Museum of Romania unblocked by bpv Grigorescu Stefanica law firm

bpv Grigorescu Stefanica law firm obtained in court the resuming of the international architecture competition The New MNIR, after it had been cancelled by the director of the National History Museum of Romania (MNIR), a press release shows.

2017-09-27 15:24:35

The decision to cancel the competition, adopted after the winner of the competition was nominated, was motivated by the alleged inconsistency between the participation rules drafted in Romanian and their English translation which would justify the annulment of the competition and the invalidation of the winner voted by an international jury working under the aegis of the International Union of Architects.

The winner of the competition, the architecture studio Starh, awarded with the implementation of the design phase of the restoration project, challenged the annulment decision with the help of a bpv Grigorescu Stefanica team led by Partners Daniel Stefanica and Anca Albulescu, which included Managing Associate Raluca Marcu and Associates Serban Dumitrescu and Oana Cotoara.

The lawyers obtained a favourable decision for Starh by which the Bucharest Court of Appeal decided that the cancellation of the competition is not legal, thus unlocking the 90 million Euro investment. The court decision is final and requires MNIR to resume the awarding procedure and reopen the negotiation phase.

"It is a pleasure to be part of projects that have such high stakes as the restoration of one of the most valuable museums of Romania," said Daniel Stefanica, Partner, Head of Dispute Resolution, bpv Grigorescu Stefanica. "We are grateful that Starh entrusted us with the representation and that, through our joint efforts, we managed to put back on track a process that was already quite unwieldy, and which should have started long ago. We hope that we will all be able to enjoy soon enough a modernized museum at the highest international standards."

bpv Grigorescu Stefanica is a Romanian business law firm with a full service offering for complex projects and litigation and a unique combination of legal and tax advisory capabilities.