President Milanović Tours Renovated Meštrović Atelier’s Permanent Exhibition
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović visited today the permanent exhibition of the Meštrović Atelier, which, after a lengthy process of complete renovation due to damage caused by the Zagreb earthquake, reopened in December.
Accompanied by the director of the Ivan Meštrović Museums, Sandra Grčić Budimir, and the Museums’ advisor and author of the exhibition, Barbara Vujanović, President Milanović toured the Meštrović Atelier, which after sixty years of operation has been redesigned as a new permanent exhibition. Namely, the renovation of the Atelier has made certain modifications in order to achieve better visibility of part of the oeuvre kept in the holdings and storage of the Meštrović Atelier, and the exhibition has also been enriched with works from the holdings of the Meštrović Gallery in Split. In addition to previously exhibited works such as the History of the Croats, Miloš Obilić or marble and bronze female nudes from the Zagreb period, rarely exhibited works such as Sir John Lavery, portrait and Moses with Raised Hands were also exhibited.
The Meštrović Atelier is located in a complex of houses on Zagreb’s Mletačka Street. It is protected as an individual cultural asset and is entered in the Register of Cultural Assets of the Republic of Croatia. After the earthquake, the renovated space of the Meštrović Atelier was structurally strengthened and museologically redefined. The new permanent exhibition provides visitors with an insight into the life and work of Ivan Meštrović in the environment in which the artist lived and worked.
The renovation of the Meštrović Atelier was led by the director of the Ivan Meštrović Museums, Sandra Grčić Budimir, the author of the exhibition is Museums’ advisor Barbara Vujanović, while the architecture, interior and art exhibition are signed by Damir Gamulin, Antun Sevšek and Jasmin Ćemanović from the “Organized Design”. The entire renovation was financed by funds from the European Union Solidarity Fund and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, as well as funds from the state budget.
President Milanović toured the exhibition of the Meštrović Atelier ahead of this year’s 21st edition of Museum Night, which is held on the last Friday in January. Alongside President Milanović was the Special Adviser to the President of the Republic for Culture, Zdravko Zima.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan