| The original corpus against the Trg republike, was built in 1902 according to the design of Andra Stevanović and Nikola Nestorović. The part facing Laza Paču Street was built in 1930, when the counter-hall (today the atrium of the National Museum) was arranged. In World War II the building was heavily damaged, and after the war it was rebuilt without the dome it has today. In the sixties, thanks to the efforts of then the manager of the National Museum, Dr. Lazar Trifunović, the central dome was back in place, and the interior arranged, so that today it fully serves its purpose.
The museum was founded in 1844.
It opened for visitors for the first time in 1871.The first foreign exhibition was held in 1924.The museum moved to its current home in 1950 and reopened in 1952.The National Museum of Serbia, located in Belgrade's famous Republic Square, is home to around 400,000 objects comprising a huge number of Yugoslav and foreign paintings. It most recent acquisition, Amedeo Modigliani's Portrait of Man, was donated by an anonymous Serbian collector, and has an estimated value of 25 million euros. It began life as a museum in 1844, yet did not open to the public until 1871. A period of intense augmentation then took place, until in 1950, following the Second World War, it moved to its current home in the middle of the capital. It is currently closed for renovations which will add a huge glass dome to the building's roof.
The museum is home to an enviable collection of French, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Russian, Austrian, German, Cubist and Yugoslav art - yet it is the French cache which inevitably draws the most admirers, with prominent pieces by Renoir, Rodin, Gauguin, Degas, Cezanne and Matisse. There are also several highly rare Picasso works. Many of the museum's most sought-after items form part of the Slomovic Collection, named after Erih Slomovic; who created a monumental cache of French art during the Second World War, prior to his murder at the hands of the Nazis. The museum also contains a Numismatics gallery, comprising more than 300,000 coins, medals, rings seals and other historically important artifacts. Highlights of this section include a collection of coins issued by Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BC) and Alexander the Great (336 - 323 BC). |