Conservation

In 1937, a new exhibition of the Military Museum was opened in two buildings on Kalemegdan, where conservation work was carried out within the framework of the carpentry and rifle workshops. These were the beginnings of the development of the conservation of museum objects of importance for the history of the Serbian army, armaments and warfare in general. With the relocation of the Military Museum collections in 1960 to a new building, also on Kalemegdan, conservation workshops-laboratories for textiles and metal were established with the most modern equipment of the time.According to the needs and understanding of strict museological criteria, by the museum management, and at the same time favorable material circumstances, museum conservators were given a unique opportunity to improve their profession in eminent centers for conservation and restoration. Thus, an expert team of specialists was formed, in the field of conservation and restoration of metals and textiles, which until the eighties and nineties of the last century selflessly provided educational services to all institutions of culture and protection of cultural heritage. With the collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a time of sudden stagnation began for the entire country, as well as for the Military Museum, which, with the ideology of Yugoslavism, lost its importance and values. This situation led to the creation of a vacuum in all fields of scientific research and conservation of cultural heritage.Since the beginning of the 2000s, with all the material efforts, two conservation workshops have been formed in the Military Museum to date. One for the conservation of weapons and metal objects (intended for weapons), as well as the second workshop in which conservation treatments are carried out on metal objects, textiles (including uniforms, flags and easel paintings) and smaller leather objects. This fact places us among those museums that can boast the ability to continuously carry out the protection and preventive conservation of museum objects within the permanent exhibition and collections. One master conservator-restorer of easel paintings, one master conservator-restorer and one metal conservator are engaged in these tasks.

PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION

When the Military Geographical Institute was moved from the Belgrade Fortress and the building was assigned to the Military Museum, a thematic plan for the new exhibition was adopted, which was changed several times, in 1958, 1959 and 1960. Among the numerous experts who participated in the creation of the new exhibition of the Military Museum as consultants and reviewers were Milutin Garašanin and Jovan Kovačević. In 1961, the new exhibition was opened by the President of the Republic, Josip Broz Tito.Special attention was paid to acquisitions, training of experts, and scientific research work was also initiated. The enthusiasm with which the Military Museum was strengthened as a true institution of protection can be seen in a new form of professional work that is being introduced. We can freely consider it preventive conservation, because experts from the Military Museum, through organized collective visits to Belgrade museums, aimed to explain the meaning, concept, and assess the value and condition of the exhibited objects in the permanent exhibitions on site. After these visits-exercises, meetings were organized, where discussions developed, and where learning was done from others' mistakes.Unfortunately, this practice was also affected by the same vacuum created by the collapse of Yugoslavia. Today, preventive conservation is also carried out in the Military Museum within the framework of conservation workshops. A master conservator - preventive conservation - is engaged in the tasks of providing recommendations and elaborations on the method of handling museum objects, their exhibition - presentation, as well as proper disposal and storage in museum depots.

Conservators - Maja Đokić, Aleksandar Joksimović and Goran Vujinović