MUSEUM DOCUMENTATION AS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN THE PROTECTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE: HOW WE WITHSTOOD THE IMMINENT THREAT OF WAR Mikica Maštrović, PhD National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia

HOLDINGS OF THE PRINT COLLECTION

Drawings

Portfolios

Prints

Posters

Postcards

Zagreb, 2nd July 1991

My task was to single out in the shortest time

possible the most valuable items from the

Collection and put them safely away, which

meant that I had to make decisions and act

really quickly based on the momentarily

formed criteria involving very different types of

material.

Namely, all items were entered into the Collection’s accessions registers under categories such as call number, author, work, number of copies, format, technique, time of acquisition and source of origin log number , date of register entry, remarks, etc. Along with the author’s name and the work’s title, the data describing the item included a numerical classification denoting its value: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Part of the inventory book

that began to take its first

head Artur Schneider

Collection’s accessions registers today

Soon after the founding of the Print Collection, those prints and drawings that had come into the library over the course of time and were a part of its overall holdings were placed within the new collection. Among them especial attention is claimed by the 79 drawings of the well-known Austrian Baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Ehrlach (Graz, July 20, 1656 – Vienna, April 5, 1723) in which he provided reconstructions of well known world buildings of all periods. Among these chosen buildings was the Palace of Diocletian in Split. He did this series of drawings for his work Entwurf einer historischen Architektur, Vienna, 1721.

Of particular value in the collection are fifteen etchings from the series Christ and the Twelve Apostles of the great Croatian painter Andrija Medulić (Andrea Meldola) known as Schiavone (Nadin or Zadar, ca 1500 – Venice, December 1 1563).[The etchings were bought at an auction in Slovenia in 1921 by the first manager of the collection, Dr Artur Schneider.

Hans Schultes (1542 – 1619) Battle of Sisak of June 22, 1593,

The initial holdings of the Print Collection consisted of selected works from the University Library, and donations from Ljubo Babić, Tomislav Krizman and Menci Clement Crnčić

Ljubo Babić, Entombent, 1920 Watercolour, tempera 187 x 235 mm

Tomislav Krizman, Marya Delward, 1908, etching, aquatint, plate mark 830 x 540 mm, sheet 884 x 600 mm

At the end of that same day, before midnight, the Collection’s most valuable items were singled out, entered into a new register, stored in metal cases and safely relocated until the threat of war subsided.

At the end of that same day, before midnight, the Collection’s most valuable items were singled out, entered into a new register, stored in metal cases and safely relocated until the threat of war subsided. Owing to the detailed and well-kept Collection’s records, it was easy to select the Collection’s most valuable treasures among its 200,000 items and safely put them away until the time when national freedom was fully gained.

This experience clearly indicates that a

systematic and regular keeping of records and

registers is an essential part of the protection

and preservation of cultural heritage and thus a

significant element in making it available to

future generations.