The Krivaja Villa, which was declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018 and is a symbol of the city of Zavidovići, has been put up for sale three times so far. Can the city authorities find a legal solution and return this valuable property to the citizens of Zavidovići?
The Krivaja Villa in the heart of Zavidovići, otherwise a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is for sale. And this is not the first time that this valuable property has been sold, which, along with numerous others, remains a memory of the former industrial giant.
The story of the sale of the culturally and historically valuable property began almost 5 years ago. It was estimated at around 1.3 million convertible marks. However, previous attempts were unsuccessful.
“In some earlier years, there were two attempts that were withdrawn by the creditors’ committee and the bankruptcy administrator and were not completed, so during my term of office the first official sale took place, which was completed as the first in which there were no interested bidders,” explains Erna Merdić Smailhodžić, Mayor of Zavidovići.
Villa Krivaja was declared a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018, and the citizens of Zavidovići believe that, as such, it should belong to the city.
It should be the city’s, it is a monument. It was left for us, for Zavidovići, it is a monument of Krivaja.
Because of tradition, because of everything, we need to find a way to realize it now and that the administration and mayor of our city will find a way to make it so.
I think that a tourist attraction could be created there and how much is currently legally possible, but I think it would be nice.
It is with the aim of promoting cultural and historical values through the project of the Local Democracy Agency Zavidovići that Krivaja’s villa will be placed under protection. However, the question of its fate still remains, given the previous initiative to declare it a facility of special importance.
“So our proposal was to somehow exempt the villa from privatization or somehow buy it back at a symbolic price so that it could be turned into a gallery, a museum, a city hall. It could have a multifunctional role, investments are needed, but everything would be better than it is now,” says Slađan Ilić, representative of the Local Democracy Agency Zavidovići.
The local government also agrees with this idea, but the process of selling and transferring it to the ownership of the City of Zavidovići is complicated, considering that it is in the bankruptcy estate of the industrial company Krivaja. The City Administration has already sent a letter of intent to the board of creditors in which they also stated their restoration plan.
“We said a certain financial structure that we could implement in a certain two-three years and how we would implement it. We definitely have to buy it in any case, at what price that is something that can be discussed with the creditors’ committee, the bankruptcy trustee, but we can’t get it for free, we can’t get it as a gift considering that it is the bankruptcy estate,” adds Erna Merdić Smailhodžić.
A museum, a registry office or a gallery, all of that could become Krivaja’s villa in the future. On the other hand, there is also the open question of how to satisfy the desire of the people of Zavidovići to remain in the ownership of the citizens, who seem to be the only ones who still care about the fate of the real estate of the company around which the city was formed.
