{"id":168507,"date":"2018-07-01T06:56:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T10:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=168507"},"modified":"2018-07-01T06:56:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T10:56:00","slug":"serbia-reopens-national-museum-after-15-year-renovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/01\/serbia-reopens-national-museum-after-15-year-renovations\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia reopens National Museum after 15 year renovations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hundreds<\/a>
Hundreds of citizens flocked to the National Museum in central Belgrade late on Thursday as it opened its doors after a ceremony attended by the country’s prime minister and public figures. (Photo By Mister No, CC BY 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BELGRADE, Serbia \u2014 Serbia has reopened the country’s main\u00a0museum, 15 years after it was closed for renovation following neglect during the era of wars and economic crisis in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of citizens flocked to the National\u00a0Museum\u00a0in central Belgrade late on Thursday as it opened its doors after a ceremony attended by the country’s prime minister and public figures. A promotion video for the occasion featured Ukrainian ballet star Sergei Polunin, who also holds a Serbian passport.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0museum\u00a0holds a collection of key archaeological findings from the area, important works of key Serbian artists but also works by Pablo Picasso and Edgar Degas. Its years-long closure had drawn public criticism of the government’s policies toward culture.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said she was \u201cendlessly happy and proud\u201d that her government finally has finished the job. She said the\u00a0museum’s ordeal symbolizes the era \u201cwhen culture was marginalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important step toward the future that we are now building,\u201d said Brnabic. \u201cWe finally return the National\u00a0Museum\u00a0to all our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serbia went through a decade of economic and social decline during the 1990s when international sanctions were imposed on the country because of its warmongering policies.<\/p>\n

The populist authorities of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, himself a former nationalist, have pledged to boost culture as the country seeks to join the European Union.<\/p>\n

Serbia’s\u00a0Museum\u00a0of Contemporary Art also reopened last year after years of renovation.<\/p>\n

The reopening ceremony for the National\u00a0Museum\u00a0included a children’s choir and a video display on the building’s facade on a central square in Belgrade.<\/p>\n

The citizens who attended the ceremony were thrilled as the\u00a0museum\u00a0remained open for visitors until the early hours on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don’t nourish the past … we can’t become a modern society,\u201d said Ljiljana Gakovic. \u201cThe idea is to guard and nourish one’s past and transfer the knowledge to next generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BELGRADE, Serbia \u2014 Serbia has reopened the country’s main\u00a0museum, 15 years after it was closed for renovation following neglect during …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":168508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26461,859],"class_list":["post-168507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-and-culture","tag-national-museum","tag-serbia","mauthors-jovana-gec","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}