Private collection as a museum phenomenon – on the example of the Collection of Stjepan Meza in the Museum of Sarajevo, of author Žanka Dodig, is the result of the author’s long-term work on the collection and legacy of Stjepan Meza, and gives an insight into the current knowledge about the phenomenon of collecting, collections and collectors, about the beginnings of collecting in the world , as well as the way of preserving comprehensive heritage in museums.
The book tells about the collector Mezi – the beginnings of his collecting engagement, the method of acquiring new copies of the collection, the fate of the collected, as well as the fate of the collector, and a detailed description of the Collection he formed and which he later, in 1961, donated to the Museum of Sarajevo.
With this important edition for Bosnian museology and the history of Bosnian collecting, the Museum of Sarajevo marked the 140th anniversary of the birth of the private collector Stjepan Meza, and 50 years since the death of this collector.
It is known that Mezo collected almost everything related to hospitality and hotel management: cookbooks, cutlery and menus as the most recognizable and numerous in his collection. The emphasis of his collection is on menus, although he also collected other items, even those that have no connection to that field, such as art paintings, a numismatic collection, examples of porcelain dishes, watches, weapons, parts of furniture, photographs, diplomas, medals and boxes. match.
The author has reconstructed the path of the Collection from its collector to the Museum on the basis of the documents kept in the rich museum documentation. In a comprehensive presentation, most of this valuable documentation (archival material, various lists of objects, newspaper clippings, correspondence) follows the history and development of the Collection in the Museum. The text of the book is also accompanied by numerous illustrations from the photographic archive and reproductions of museum objects from Meza’s legacy.
The book is also an incentive for further thinking about responsibility for heritage and the role of heritage in the cultural development of a city.
