Professional paper
Museum in the Service of the Regime: Archeological Museum in Zagreb and the Second World War
Ana Solter
; Archaeological Museum in Zagreb
Abstract
By analysing the sources, Solter demonstrated how, during the existence of the Independent State of Croatia, the Museum became “instrument in the implementation of an ideologically motivated policy towards cultural heritage.” The new laws of that state, enacted to protect archaeological and cultural heritage, were used to systematically seize property, particularly from Jewish and Serbian owners. “Under the guise of preserving national heritage, raids and inventories of private collections were carried out, and numerous objects were forcibly transferred to state museums,” making the Archaeological Museum “a warehouse for objects confiscated from private collections.” Museum staff, under government pressure, actively participated in these processes “from inventorying objects to their transfer to the Museum.” The study examined the methods and sources through which materials, mostly taken from Jewish and Serbian families, reached the museum, including state institutions, religious communities, individuals, and even materials from the Ustasha concentration camp in Požega.
Keywords
Archeological Museum in Zagreb; Second World War; Provenance
Hrčak ID:
331551
URI
Publication date:
12.12.2024.
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