100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ANTE TOPIC MIMARA

Motif: The motif is the portrait of Ante Topić Mimara and details of his art collection (Edouard Manet: "Apples"; the bust of a Greek goddess - Greece, 1 st c.B.C., bronze; a detail from a vase (lecythus) - Greece, beginning of 5th c.B.C., terra-cotta; the sculpture of a boy (putto), bronze - Andrea del Verrocchio). Ante Topić Mimara, the Croatian collectioner and painter, collected an imposing art collection, a smaller part of which he had donated to the Strossmayer Gallery in Zagreb back in 1948. In 1973. he donated his extensive art collection to the Croatian people, expressing the wish that it be housed and permanently exhibited in a museum that ought to become an indispensable cultural centre of Zagreb and Croatia. The Mimara Museum was opened in 1987 at Roosevelt Square in Zagreb and there, following the donor's wish, the collection of 3750 works of art has been housed and is being exhibited. The complete collection comprises integral collections of paintings, sculptures, ancient civilizations, the art of the Far East and the world of applied art, 1750 items of the total number being on permanent display.