Museum of African Art, Belgrade

The Museum of African Art (Serbian: Музеј афричке уметности, Muzej afričke umetnosti) located in the Senjak neighbourhood of Belgrade, Serbia, is the oldest institution in Southeast Europe dedicated exclusively to African art.^[2] Founded in 1977, during a period of strong Yugoslav engagement with the Non-Aligned Movement, the museum was established by Veda Zagorac and Zdravko Pečar, a former Yugoslav ambassador to Ghana and Mali, who donated the collection they gathered during their time in Africa.^[2] The museum’s permanent exhibition highlights artifacts from West Africa, particularly from Ghana, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso.^[2]

Museum of African Art

Muzej Afričke Umetnosti - Zbirka Vede i dr Zdravka Pečara
Official logo
Established	1977; 48 years ago (1977)[1]
Location	Senjak, Belgrade, Serbia
Coordinates	44.789054°N 20.434974°E / 44.789054; 20.434974
Type	Art museum
Collection size	1,700
Founder	Zdravko Pečar and Veda Pečar
Director	Marija Aleksić
Public transit access	Bus route 44 and 34 (Vasa Pelagić Station)
Website	www.mau.rs

The museum presents itself as a distinctly anti-colonial institution, distinguishing itself from many other European collections of African art.^[2] Its artifacts were not acquired through colonization, plunder, or exploitation but were instead received as gifts from African nations, reflecting Yugoslavia’s diplomatic relationships and cultural cooperation with its African allies.^[2]

History

The museum was founded in 1977 and represents the only museum in the country dedicated to the arts and culture of Africa.^[3] When it was opened, the museum was promoted as the only anticolonial museum on the European continent.^[4] Most of its collection comes from the West Africa.

The museum specializes in African art, and predominantly features African masks. It was established from the private collection of Croatian diplomat in service of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zdravko Pečar (born in Međimurje), and was a result of his long stay as Ambassador to Africa. The collection contains many rare and valuable pieces from the regions in which he travelled. The collection was bequeathed to the City of Belgrade in 1974 by the ambassador.

Since its initial establishment from Pečar's private collection, the museum has continually expanded its collection and as of 2006 contains approximately 1,700 pieces.

Gallery

• 
  Interior
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  Interior
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  Permanent exhibition (1977)

See also

• Yugoslavia and the Organisation of African Unity
• Gallery of the Non-Aligned Countries "Josip Broz Tito"
• List of museums in Serbia

References

1. Bojana Piškur (2019). "Southern Constellations: Other Histories, Other Modernities". In Tamara Soban (ed.). Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned (PDF). Museum of Modern Art (Ljubljana). ISBN 978-961-206-138-8.
2. "Afrika u Srbiji: Muzej afričke umetnosti u Beogradu slavi 44. rođendan". BBC (in Serbian). 23 September 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
3. "Muzeja afričke umetnosti slavi 40 godina". danas.rs (in Serbian). 21 May 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
4. Bojana Piškur; Đorđe Balmazović (2023). "Non-Aligned Cross-Cultural Pollination: A Short Graphic Novel". In Paul Stubbs (ed.). Socialist Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement: Social, Cultural, Political, and Economic Imaginaries. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 156–175. ISBN 9780228014652.

External links

• Media related to Museum of African Art (Belgrade) at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• About the museum on Belgrade's official website (in English)