The ceremony was attended by awarded children accompanied with their families and teachers. They were welcomed by the Ambassador of the Czech Republic, David Král, who first introduced the history of the drawing competition and talked about the tragic events after which the competition got its name. Namely, in 1942, the Nazis destroyed a village called Lidice, during which, among others, 81 children were murdered. Launched in 1967, the Lidice drawing competition commemorates the child victims of war horrors and gives all Czech and foreign children the opportunity to visually express their desire to live in a world where there is peace and no wars.

This year's drawing competition was already the 49th edition and its theme was “robot and artificial intelligence”. In his speech, Ambassador David Král also pointed out an interesting fact – the word ROBOT comes from the Czech language! The word was invented by the Czech artist Josef Čapek, whose brother Karel first used the term robot in his play “Rossum's Universal Robots” in 1920.

The theme of robots inspired many Estonian children to grab pencils and brushes, as a total of 183 art works from Estonia were submitted to the 49th Lidice competition. Ambassador Král presented the awarded children with diplomas and thanked their teachers for an outstanding guidance with a certificate from the Embassy of the Czech Republic.

The Czech Embassy is glad to announce that two Estonian children – Sofia Saks and Alisa Minchenkova – won the highest award, The Rose of Lidice medal, at this year's competition.

In addition, 12 Estonian children received the honorable mention:

Eliise Makrjakov, Adeele Pilt and Benno Tiits from Tapa School of Music and Art, supervisor Liina Kald

Ilja Vaštšenko from Tallinn Old Town Art Center, supervisor Helga Laik

Solomia Rebane from Tallinn Art School DAK, supervisor Saskia Järve

Jekaterina Rogožina from Ahtme School of Arts, supervisor Tamara Khandeshina

Sophie Elisabeth Borchers from Haapsalu Art School, supervisor Aide Leit-Lepmets

Levi Kot, Shoshana Bluma Kot and Tetiana Taran from the Estonian Jewish Education Center, supervisor Aleksandra Norkevits

Maksim Aleksandrov from Narva Art School, supervisor Olga Tjurina

Daria Volkova as an individual participant

The festive event ended with the Ambassador's cordial invitation to participate in the next year’s art competition. In 2022, the International Children's Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice will be held for the 50th time and the theme of the jubilee year competition is “museum”.