Serbia's Long Night of the Museums ... without the museums

By Thomas Brey May 12, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Belgrade - Serbia joins dozens of other countries Saturday in the Long Night of Museums campaign. However, setting Serbia apart, its most prominent museums have been boarded shut for years.

Once the showcase of Serbian culture and history, the National Museum, the Contemporary Arts Museum and the Serbian Historic Museum have all been closed for years, awaiting vital repairs.

The cause is primarily a cash shortage, but negligence and corruption are strongly contributing to the problem.

The 19th century building of the National Museum in central Belgrade, with its internationally recognized collections, remains shut and in desperate need of renovation, a state it has been in since 2003.

Over the years, scandals erupted and petered out over alleged corrupt shenanigans involving renovation projects. Now there is not a hint of when work may begin, much less when the museum may reopen for the public.

Just across the bridge, on the New Belgrade bank of the river Sava, the futuristic Contemporary Arts Museum seems like an empty, crumbling shell.

Its collections under threat of damp walls, flooding basement and drippy ceilings, the museum also requires a lot of engineering before it can admit visitors.

Renovation did begin in 2008, but the work ended quickly as funding disappeared, leaving the building to fall into itself.

'It speaks of a society that cares neither about its past, nor about its future,' said museum director Branislava Nadjelkovic. 'Nobody is responsible for the boarded museums.'

Completing what should be the big trio of culture in the Serbian capital, the Serbian Historic Museum also shares the fate of the other two. At least it occasionally holds mini-exhibitions in rented area or in space donated by one other institution.

While the Serbian National Library is not actually a museum, it holds literary and historic treasure in its vaults - but keeps it to itself, also because it cannot operate under a leaking roof.

The library is less than four decades old, built to replace the original library, destroyed by Hitler's Luftwaffe in World War II bombing.

Politicians often talk about the old library, but rarely the one that replaced it, only to sink into disrepair. The dead appearance of the library building starkly contrasts the lively park around it.

Serbian politicians prize the TV and photo-friendly inauguration of roads, bridges and churches far more - there are always several at such occasions. Museums and theatres just command less attention.

'It is a disaster and it stands for how serious this state is,' said the president of the Serbian parliamentary committee for culture, Gorica Mojovic.

Millions of dinars earmarked for the renovation of the National Museum evaporated without any work done. Some money, though unintended for the purpose, went into wages.

'Just like there is no country without a government, parliament and president, there is no state without institutions of culture,' Mojovic said. 'We are toppling one of the pillars of our statehood.'

With the museums throughout Serbia in trouble, time is running short for something to change in time for 2020, when Belgrade hopes to become the European culture capital.

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