The collector from Serbia, Stojan Matic, returned priceless works of art to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), almost 30 years after the war and the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), which included both Serbia and BiH.
The returned collection of works of art by the Slovenian painter and academician Bozidar Jakac was created during the Second World War, when the painter was a member of the partisan movement, and after the liberation from fascism, during the communist Yugoslavia.
Seventy-five-year-old collector Stojan returned the paintings to the Museum of the Second Session of the Anti-Fascist Council of the People’s Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in Jajce. The paintings were stolen from that museum during the war in the 1990s, after the collapse of the SFRY.
Stojan, who is from the vicinity of Kovin in Vojvodina, said that he bought the stolen paintings of Bozidar Jakac 28 years ago at the market in Vienna, where he lived at the time.
‘I bought the paintings at the flea market’
“It was the end of 1992 or the beginning of 1993 (the first year of the war in BiH). I am a collector, so people offer all sorts of things and it gets around. I was informed by phone call that there was something at the flea market that could interested and that it was stolen from the museum in Jajce. I was told to prepare the money and come,” recalls Matic.
Upon his arrival at the Viennese market, he was met at one of the stalls by a seller who handed him a cardboard map, which until then had been under the table.
“When I came to the apartment, I saw what I bought. It is inappropriate to say how much I paid for it. I paid because I wanted to have it. I could sell it or exchange it for other things, but I knew that I needed to I will return as soon as the war calms down,” says Matic.
Not knowing who to turn to, Matic contacted the famous BiH actor Emir Hadzihafizbegovic three years ago, asking for help to return the paintings to Jajce.
Form a specialized police unit
Dzenan Jusufovic from the Center against Art Smuggling stated that BiH should have a specialized police unit when it comes to missing works of art. Croatia and Serbia, he claims, signed an agreement several years ago, based on which 30,000 works of art from Serbia were returned to Croatia.
“Our works of art are scattered all over the world. We have to ask for it to be returned to us through the state authorities if we know where it is. An example is the national monument, the painting ‘Magdalene’, which BiH needs to return home,” points out Jusufovic, Slobodna Evropa reports.
Photo: illustration
E.Dz.
