Belgrade’s Natural History Museum is SHUTTING DOWN after 125 YEARS
The Museum of Natural History in Belgrade will soon lose its 125-year-old status as a significant, independent national institution of culture, science and education and will become a working unit of the Serbian Institute for Nature Protection, the institution announced.
„Apart from one official conversation on January 25th this year, when the former assistant minister was informed of the disagreement with the intentions to merge the Museum of Natural History to the environmental protection department, there were no further detailed and official information and contacts with representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Information“, the institution announced.
They say that the attempts of the Museum of Natural History to establish a dialogue unfortunately did not have a response from the authorities in the Ministry of Culture.
According to them, it is envisaged that one of the five initially established institutions of Serbian culture, an institution of high academic, cultural and historical reputation, will lose the status of an independent museum, although it appears as such in the Law on Culture, the Law on Cultural Heritage and all previous cultural development strategies of the Republic of Serbia, including the current for the period from 2020 to 2029, the recently discussed draft Law on Museum Activities, and even the Law on Nature Protection, but many other documents as well.
„It seems that this idea was brought suddenly, without good intentions and good thinking, and obviously without legal preparation as well,“ the museum said.
The Museum of Natural History is one of the oldest cultural institutions and the only natural history museum in Serbia.
It was founded under the name of the Museum of Natural History of the Serbian Land on December 19th, 1895, by an act of the Minister of Education and Church Affairs of the Kingdom of Serbia.
Izvor: BIZLife
Foto: Screenshot
