History of the Museum

The National Museum was founded by a decree of the Minister of Education Jovan Sterija Popovic on May 10, 1844 as Serbian Museum (Muzeum serbski) whose purpose was to collect antiquities in one place and to safeguard them for posterity. In the first decades of its work it was organised as an institution of protection but also as a scientific and research institution that constituted the national identity and was a crucial participant in the development of heritage protection. The National Museum soon grew into an official representative of the state and the society, testifying to a possible strength of culture and museums in Serbia.

Intensive activity of collecting and developing collections was soon joined with the diverse research work that transformed the Museum from the depot of past into a demonstrating exhibition space. The years between the wars brought big transformations in which the exhibitions, especially international ones that partially decreased, and the diverse research and exceptional publishing activities positioned the Museum as a center of information on good, on beauty, on special values of the national, but also of European, heritage.

The last few decades, the rich exhibiting and publishing activity as well as the diverse programmes for the public with new technologies in a prominent place, confirmed that the National Museum is an important center of communication and source of knowledge, an open, dynamic and accessible museum.

• 1844
  By the Decree of the Head of the Ministry of Education, Jovan Sterija Popovic,  Muzeum Serbski (Serbian Museum) was founded – the beginning of the systematic collecting and protection of cultural heritage in Serbia
• 1848
  First Museum inventory – total of 79 items (coins, charters and diplomas, manuscripts and printed books, old seals, tools, jars and statues)
• 1850
  Museum was presented with the gift ofPortrait of Emperor Trajan’s Father found in town Kostol
• 1853
  By the Decree of Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic the position of Museum Custodian was established. The first appointed Custodian was Filip Nikolic
• 1862
  First evacuation of museum collection (24 crates) due to the armed attack of the Turkish Army
• 1864
  Museum collection enlarged with collections of Serbian Literacy Association (Drustvo srpske slovesnosti)
• 1864
  First Museum exhibition was organised
• 1865
  First archeological excavations in Serbia, on Mountain Rudnik
• 1871
  Museum collection counts 12,869 artifacts in 19 departments
• 1873
  Katarina Ivanovic, first Serbian educated female painter, presented the Museum with a gift of four of her artworks and three years later with seven paintings and 1,000 forints for their maintenance