{"id":2381,"date":"2024-04-25T11:14:54","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T11:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgallery.hazu.hr\/izlozba\/vanka\/?page_id=2381"},"modified":"2024-05-03T11:14:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T11:14:08","slug":"the-history-of-the-collection","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sgallery.hazu.hr\/izlozba\/vanka\/en\/the-history-of-the-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of the Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The History of the Collection<\/h1>\n

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In a matter of months after her husband's death, Vanka's widow expressed an intention to donate part of the deceased's artistic legacy to an institution in his homeland, and to put the family real estate in the service of art. It would seem that the then Yugoslav Consul General in New York, Miroslav Krea\u010di\u0107, and his wife, Vanda b. Tompa, played a significant role in the ripening and final realization of this idea; both of whom, at the instigation of the painter Kamilo Tompa (who was also Mrs. Krea\u010di\u0107's paternal uncle), established cordial relations with the Vankas, whom they visited regularly at their White Bridge Farm<\/em> in Pennsylvania, while the artist was still alive. In June 1963, Krea\u010di\u0107 wrote to the Counsel of Education and Culture of the People's Republic of Croatia - Zagreb, to the administration of the Academy and to Matrix Croatica (Croatian: Matica hrvatska): \u201cRecently, at the invitation of Vanka's wife, I examined the remaining paintings in his studio. Margaret Vanka is ready to donate several paintings to the atelier in Kor\u010dula or to the Gallery in Zagreb or to any other institution that I might suggest. She primarily considered donating three large canvases thematically related to Zagreb and Zagorje by subject matter and period of creation, but during the conversation she expressed her willingness to donate some other works from various periods of his life and creation, so that in this way, a cross section of his work as a whole would be preserved in his country.\u201d However, we learn more details from, understandably, less discreet, private memoirs that Krea\u010di\u0107 compiled for his descendants: \u201cWe visited them at the farm and Margaret asked us what to do with the large and one smaller house on Kor\u010dula and asked if there was a chance to reclaim those houses. As at that time there was no prospect of nationalized property being returned to its owners, I suggested that the large house be donated to the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, as well as the collection of Maxo\u2019s paintings for a permanent display. After a certain time, the Vanka family and the Academy in Zagreb came to an agreement, and a deed of gift was signed in our apartment in the presence of both parties.\u201d From the aforementioned memorandum to several Croatian cultural institutions, it can be further surmised that the final selection of artwork was probably left up to a Yugoslav painter with temporary residence in the USA and that it was quite probably the Serbian painter and art historian, then manager of the Belgrade Modern Gallery, Miodrag Proti\u0107 (1922 \u2013 2014). Not even an entire month had passed, when the Academy sent a positive response, along with an added explanation that its Department of Fine Arts arrived at the conclusion that \u201cthe entire process should be headed in the direction of one house being intended for the Maksimilijan Vanka memorial museum, and the other serving as a painting studio in honour of Maksimilijan Vanka, and for the benefit of young artists\u201d, and the Academy will \u201calso with the deepest gratitude receive individual paintings from the legacy of M. Vanka as a gift, as they have been given to understand by the deceased\u2019s widow\u201d. Cvito Fiskovi\u0107, F.C.A., was entrusted with \u201cbringing to fruition the ideas and wishes of Maksimilijan Vanka\u2019s family in accordance with the local governing bodies of the Kor\u010dula People's Committee. What followed was an extremely complex operation stretching over a period as long as two years. In 1965, the Kor\u010dula City Council issued the Vanka's a title deed to the villas Stetten<\/em> and Tusculum<\/em> and the small yacht Pegica no. 136<\/em>, with the profession that the interior of both buildings had been destroyed during the Second World War. In the spring of the following year, a Deed of Gift was signed, a donation agreement for the two properties, with clauses stipulating their intended uses. However, the undertaking was not completed before the transfer of ownership had been regulated in the summer of 1967. The revamping of the villa for the accommodation of the Collection included a complete adaptation of the edifice; inter alia, the conversion of three hitherto salons into exhibition halls.<\/p>\n

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