Do you know the story about Mimara Museum in Zagreb?
The Mimara Museum, i. E. «The Art Collection of Ante and Wiltrud Topić Mimara», was opened to the public on 17 July 1987. The museum building, which was once a Secondary School, is in Neo-Renaissance style. It dates from 1987, constructed according to plans of the German Architects Ludwig and Hülssner ordered by Iso Kršnjavi, head of the Croatian Department of Education and Religious Affairs from 1891 to 1896. Kršnjavi`s original aim was to establish a large educational and museum complex to be known as the School Forum, but he had to be contend with only partial realization of his conception: only secondary school have ever before been housed in this building. Ninety years later, the central part of the building was converted and reconstructed to make it suitable to house the Topić Mimara Collection, according to a resolution passed in 1985 by the Assembly to the Socialist Republic of Croatia and the Council of the City of Zagreb.
The Mimara Museum is thus a new foundation but the collection of art that it houses was for Ante Topić Mimara a process of many years duration, involving an enormous amount of work and dedication. It absorbed him for more than half a century – whole life dedicated to art, to art collecting and restoration, a life consisting of study, search, research and the welcome assistance of Kairos, god of the Fortunate moment. His unwavering persistence culminated in the marvelous collection showing an amazing richness of materials and techniques, of civilizations and cultures. Almost 450 paintings of different traditions and schools are represented, from icons to the paintings of Italian, French, Flemish, Dutch, German, English and Spanish artists; about 200 statues and more than 1000 craft works in wood, stone, bronze, silver, glass, ceramics, ivory, alabaster etc. Ranging from Antiquity to modern times. They show the fine artistic ability of sculptors and craftsmen in meeting the cultural, religious and everyday needs of past times. There are also many works of art from China and other Far Eastern countries as well as an important collection of valuable oriental carpets.
The permanent exhibition of the museum is presented according to varied Criteria, which are affected by spatial premises, size of the particular collections, micro-climatic conditions and also by the educational goals and the wishes of the donor. The exhibits are chronologically displayed wit6h the exception of Far Eastern art witch is grouped according to the kind of material from which the objects are made. This has resulted in a division of the permanent display itself. On the ground floor the collection of glass and Far Eastern art is exhibited, the first floor contains items from the archaeological collection and from European sculpture and craft; the second floor is a picture gallery.
Ante Topić Mimara condensed his reasons for leaving his art collection to Zagreb in the following sentence: The opening of this museum gives me immeasurable joy because it is a realization of my lifelong wish to repay my debt to my homeland and to the Croatian people.
