The B&H National Museum, the oldest museum in B&H, will mark today its 126th birthday. In other countries, this would be marked with celebrations. In B&H, the national museum has been closed for more than one year, and institutions responsible for it have forgotten that this pillar of culture existed.
The B&H National Museum defied its enemies in the most difficult period and kept its doors open to visitors.
However, due to neglect by government, it closed its doors on 4 October 2012, and there are no indicators as to when the oldest museum in B&H will open its doors once again.
Behind these closed doors, there is an entire cultural, historical and natural heritage of B&H. Museum employees, even if they have no salaries, come to work and take care of the exhibits as much as they can.
However, it is difficult to keep such treasures in the same condition. Humidity is eating away at the walls and slowly destroys numerous exhibits, even if employees are trying to do repairs, including against moisture.
The most vulnerable category of exhibits in the museum belongs to the Natural History Department, where the objects are sensitive to external influences.
‘’While the relevant authorities agree and begin to do their jobs, the boards with the label ‘Closed’ will remain on the doors of the museum, as a dark spot on society where there are fewer of those to protect the culture and historical memory of all peoples in B&H.
The National Museum was established n 1 February 1888. In the beginning, it was located in poorly kept rooms, so new buildings were built by architect Karlo Paržik. It is interesting that this was the only museum building in South East Europe, which at that time was built for this purpose.
The museum was officially opened on 4 October 1913, and was closed on that day in 2012.
The first Director of the museum was Kosta Herman, and Adnan Busuladžić is the current Director.
(Source: klix.ba)
