For several decades of the 20th century, Zdeněk Burian was a leading figure in artistic paleontological reconstruction, known as paleoart. His depiction of prehistory was influenced by many factors: his character, the fact that he was an illustrator of adventure literature, older paleo-reconstructions by his predecessors, the personalities of his expert advisors, and, last but not least, the fact that he worked in 20th-century Czechoslovakia. Most of his paleoart was created either during the Nazi occupation, during the so-called Third Republic, and especially during the period when Czechoslovakia was under the influence of the Kremlin, behind the so-called Iron Curtain. To this day, this fact influences the perception of Burian’s paleoart, especially by researchers from countries west of Czechia. What is the true legacy of Burian's work in this field, stripped of these and other biases?