The Art Newspaper

Zagreb’s first new museum in over a century opens in December

The Museum of Contemporary Art will show Croatian and international works

By Richard Unwin. Web only
Published online: 29 October 2009

london. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb—the largest publicly funded cultural project since Croatian independence in 1991—will finally open its doors in December. The opening marks the culmination of a frustratingly drawn-out process, with the decision to create a museum first being made in 1998.

A new building, designed by Croatian architect Igor Franic, has been created to house the museum, which holds collections of Croatian and foreign works from the 1950s to the present. A spokesperson for the museum told The Art Newspaper that returning the collection to public display was hampered by cuts in the country’s cultural budget: “Budgets were cut all around Europe and that’s the main reason we are so delayed with the opening of the new building.”

Despite the delay, the new museum will be extensive, covering a total area of 15,000 sq. m. The ambitious project is the first museum to be built in Zagreb in 125 years. It could also prove something of a litmus test for the wider region, with contemporary collections in southeastern Europe still under-represented. A spokesperson for the institution stated: “We hope that our museum, with its diverse programme, will be the generator of new and fresh cultural life in Zagreb, Croatia and the region.”