The National Museum is among the most important institutions of the citzy of Belgrade, as well as Serbia as a whole. The museum was first opened in 1884, following a proclamation of the then-minister of education, Jovan Sterija Popović. The goal was to compile an impressive collection that could educate the youth about history, as well as display the proof of the significance of a people and its culture.
The National Museum managed to accumulate a significant ammount of items in its first decade of operation. The cultural heritage collected formed the national identity of the Serbian people. As a very important institution, the museum was very popular.
The drawing and graphics collection, which includes works of international artists, boasts around 2450 works, while the Yugoslav and Serbian collections include more than 6000 works of art, 1700 of which are works by Serbian painters from the 18th and 19th centuries, and around 3000 paintings are from the 20th century.
In 1864, Kneginja Julija Obrenović donated two paintings to the museum: “The Battle of Belgrade“ by the Italian painter Felice Cerutti Bauduc, and The Portrait of Constanca Morosini according to a work by by painter Andrea Schiavone, but this work’s author is unknown. Venetian painter of Slovak descent, Bertold Lipaj, donated 90 paintings by Italian masters to the museum in 1891.
In 1955, The Historical Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Arts merged into what became the Museum of Prince Paul. The Museum was relocated to the building of the New Royal Palace and was opened for the public in 1936.
Following the end of World War Two and the liberation of Belgrade from fascism, the museum was moved to its current location in 1952, and it still takes up the central position at the Republic Square. It is interesting to note that the building was supposed to be given to the State Mortgage Bank, but the original plans were changed.
The last significant donation to the museum was the donation of Amadeo Modigliani’s Portrait of a Man, which was donated by an anonymous Serbian collector. The value of this painting was estimated at around €25 million. The painting was officialy placed in the museum’s permanent display after a lengthy renovation process was ended.
The museum’s French collection contains rare works by Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Degas and Cézanne. Most of the paintings in this collection were purchased by Prince Paul himself. The Slomović collectionis the largest collection of French artwork in the Balkan region and it contains paintings collected by Erih Slomović, a Belgrade native who, by co-operating with Ambroise Vollard, acqured around 600 works of art.
The last renovative work on the museum lasted several years and was finished in 2018. The public was very interested in the museum after the renovation was done, and it was visited by around 150 thousand people during the course of six months alone after the construction work was done.
Ticket prices for the National Museum
The regular ticket for the permanent display: 300 dinar
The regular ticket for the permanent, as well as the temporary setting: 600 dinar
The regular price ticket for the temporary setting: 500 dinar
Discount ticket for students, pensioners and college students for the museum’s permanent setting: 150 dinar
Every Sunday between 10am and 6pm, the ticket for the permanent display is FREE OF CHARGE.
Working hours of the National Museum
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays: between 10am and 6pm
Thursdays and Saturdays: between 12am and 8pm
The museum is CLOSED on Mondays.
The author of the article
N. Anđelić
BSc in demography
For any information regarding organized tourist tours of Belgrade do not hesitate to contact me.
