Subject: BosNet ARTICLE - What Happened To Bosnia 's Art
Treasures
Date: 1995/07/27
BOSNEWS
From the beginning of the present war, the Bosno-Herzegovinian cultural heritage has suffered deliberate destruction, as well as becoming an item for black market trading and illegal export. Because of the nature of the aggression being carried out in Bosnia (both internal and external) even now we do not have an exact picture, either of what precisely has happened and continues to happen in that part of Bosnia-Herzegovina which is still free, or to what degree certain occupied towns and villages are damaged. The information which does reach us, tells of the indiscriminate plundering of all structures which have managed to avoid destruction by missiles, or by explosives laid for the purpose. Action to protect the cultural treasures of the museums of Sarajevo was postponed until the very commencement of the present war. The reason for this was simple: although all museums and galleries of Bosnia-Herzegovina possessed plans for the protection of their collections in the event of the outbreak of war, few, except for the very occasional expert (among which can be numbered the author of this article), believed that this particular war would take place. It seemed inconceivable that the former Yugoslavia, particularly Serbia and Montenegro, having prepared stockpiles of all kinds of weapons out of belief in a possible attack from outside, would then turn to civil war and would turn these weapons against Bosnia-Herzegovina. All along, when first Slovenie was attacked, and then Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina felt that to openly protect her collections would be a demonstration indicating a kind of betrayal of the former Yugoslavia and of her army. Bosnia was encouraged in these views by certain Serbian experts who were closely linked with the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, and with the Montenegrin Radovan Karadzic, leader of the collective Montenegrin and Serbian attacks on the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and on Sarajevo in particular. Therefore, Bosnia delayed the protection of her collections until it was almost too late. The only Bosnian collection given early protection was that of the Serbian Orthodox Church, whose leaders were, of course, aware of what was in store for this unfortunate land. The permanent collection of the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum (Crkveni muzej Srpske pravoslavne crkve), and its huge and valuable collection of icons, were accordingly transferred to Serbia. During the same period, the largest and most important museum in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the 'territorial museum' or Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine (described by Marian Wenzel and others in MUSEUM MANAGEMENT AND CURATORSHIP (12.1.1993, pp. 95-96; 12.2.1993, pp. 195-199; 12.3.1993, pp. 318-319; and 13.1.1994, pp. 79-80), awaited the war with its permanent displays in place in all three of its departments (archaeology, ethnography, and natural history). It was only during the course of the war, thanks to the devoted activity on the part of the very few remaining Museum staff, that certain brave, but sadly insufficient measures were taken to preserve the Museum's collections and the extensive library. The losses to the Museum's collections are huge, particularly in respect of the natural history collections. In the main, the situation is that, on the territory held by the HVO (Croatian nationalist forces) only the Croatian heritage is protected, while all else has been plundered and destroyed. The same is true for the territory occupied by Serbian forces, where the Serbian heritage alone is protected. Again, only in territory controlled by the Bosno-Herzegovinian army ia rhw multi-cultural heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina preserved. There is evidence that such preservation certainly takes place in Sarajevo, Tuzla and other free Bosno-Herzegovinian towns. According to what we know for certain, the only exception to this (up to October 1993) is the Franciscan monastery in Guca Gora, which was destroyed by some extremist elements in the Bosnian Army in the heat of the war, and contrary to the specific instructions to preserve and guard the heritage of all ethnic groups which happened to fall within the war zone, issued by the Bosnian Presidency and High Command. In accordance with these orders, great care has been taken to preserve those most notable Franciscan monasteries which have survived from the Middle Ages: Kresevo, Fojnica, and Kraljeva-Sutjeska (the widely spread rumor that this last monastery has been destroyed by the Bosno-Herzegovinian army is incorrect). Evidence which can be cited that Serbia prepared in advance for its aggression against Bosnia is: (1.) the secret removal of the rich contents of the Museum of the Old Orthodox Church in Sarajevo before the beginning of the war; (2.) the removal to Belgrade of the most valuable icons of the permanent display of the Orthodox Church treasures in Tuzla (information from the Bosnian Government), a number of months before the beginning of the war -- on the grounds that they needed restoration and conservation; and (3.) the removal of moveable treasures from the monastery Zitomislic (information from Lj. Kojic) in advance of the war; so that in fact these treasures were not destroyed, except possibly the iconostasis which presumably could not easily have been removed unnoticed, when the monastery itself was destroyed by the HVO. (Note by translator: Colin Kaiser, who examined the ruins carefully in December 1993, saw no traces of shattered, painted wood in the debris). Nevertheless, in spite of everything, we are of course pleased that this portion of the Bosno-Herzegovinian heritage has been saved, even though there is little likelihood that the objects in question will ever be returned to Bosnia when the war is over. When we speak of moveable heritage, a particular problem is posed by Bosnia's numerous private collections, which were never systematically inventoried, so that we do not know details of many of them, because their collectors had chosen to remain anonymous. In Sarajevo, in particular, a number of townspeople collected works of art, sometimes only to decorate the interiors of their homes, but more often than not out of genuine collector's passion. Neither in respect of private libraries (rare books and manuscripts), nor in respect to collections of items of the decorative arts (silver, gold, weapons, jewellery, embroidery, woodcarving, etc.) do we have a clear picture. Along with the destruction of so many of the town's residences, a treasure house of collectables has also been destroyed. Of the largest private collections, that of Ilija and Juljana Buljovcic has been preserved,, although it must be said that some works of art were ruined by bullets and shrapnel which entered through the windows. This collection consisted in the main of icons and old portraits of Sarajevo residents, to which had been added paintings by local and by foreign masters. It was particularly rich in modern Bosno-Herzegovinian art. Another extremely important collection, consisting of works of the top Belgrade masters of modern art and belonging to Dr. Andrije Gvozdenovic, was, we have learned, transferred to Serbian territory before the outbreak of hostilities. The Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Umjetnicka galerija Bosne i Hercegovine), which possesses over 5000 works of art dating from the 14th century to the present day (paintings, sculpture, graphic art, drawings, installations), managed to move its collections, archive and library into safety before the grave damage inflicted upon its building occurred. In spite of everything, however, the Gallery suffered the theft of a certain number of valuable works, now being sought by the national police and Interpol. The Museum of the City of Sarajevo (Muzej Grada Sarajeva), which includes, as separate sub-museums, the Jewish Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Muzej jevreja Bosne i Hercegovine) and the Museum of Young Bosnia (Muzej Mlade Bosne) succeded in having major exhibits deposited in relatively safe places, but their buildings were badly hit, and those exhibits left in position were destroyed. The worst damage occurred to exhibits of the Young Bosnia Museum, which faces the River Miljacka and is near the burnt out Vijecnica (National Library). Even so, certain museum exhibits were protected in situ, while others were taken to safer buildings within their own buildings. All the collections were protected by a special police force, and access to them is still possible -- though not easy -- for the majority of items. The security problem in relation to Sarajevo's museum collections is not solved, nor will it be as long as the effective siege of the city continues and heavy artillery, easily placed on the surrounding hills, can hit every square centimeter of this tortured town. A particular problem is presented by the artists' studios of Sarajevo and of other parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which were full of valuable works of art. On the occasion of the shelling and subsequent destruction of the National Library in Sarajevo, the studios of the painters Dobrivoj Beljkasovic and Vlada Vojnovic were destroyed. In the Grbavica neighborhood (occupied by the Serbs), the studios of Ibrahim Ljubovic, Afan Ramic, Nada Pivac, Hakija Kulenovic, Mustafa Ibrulje and others were all plundered. Borislav Aleksic, it appears, had removed the contents of his studio to Serbia. Other studios were burned out, including those of Jusa Niksic, Mladen Solda, Pravica, Melher, Begovic, Handzic and Hasanbegovic; the studio of the sculptor Nikola Mjiric received a direct hit and that of Milivoj Bokic (the well-known naive sculptor) was similarly destroyed. We should make one further point, concerning the work of the Commission for the Protectionof Sarajevo's Cultural Heritage, founded 14 May 1992, of which the president was Mevlida Serdarevic. This has had a number of subcommittees in its structure, among which the most active was the Subcommittee for the Saving of Movable Heritage, of which the president was the present author. Thus Subcommittee was organized by the present author into six functional groups: (1.) moveable fine arts and decorative arts; (2.) archives and documentation; (3.) libraries; (4.) museums; (5.) films; and (6.) television and video. The subcommittees brought together representatives of all republic-wide and municipal cultural institutions, and the various working groups were led by important experts and research scholars. A so-called "action group" worked within the Subcommittee for the Saving of Movable Heritage, made up of student-volunteers. The actor Josip Pejakovic played an important role in this group from the end of August 1992, the time of the burning of the National Library. Previously, he had worked within the organization caring for the concerns of actors. Under him, a headquarters, or Office for the Protection of Cultural Property, was established, which worked in conjunction with the military police, and which took upon itself the the saving and storing of movable heritage. In addition, it should be noted in conclusion that certain national organisations within Bosnia and Herzegovina together possessed a large collection of major works of art, comprising around 350 valuable items, which are all listed, and of which the Art Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina had published a schedule only shortly before the present war. The above-mentioned Office prepared a new list of these treasures during the course of the war, from which it has been ascertained that 44 of them are now missing. These have either been destroyed by missiles, or were stolen at the beginning of the war. Azra Begic (Translated by Marian Wenzel)