The History Museum of Serbia today presented the lead seal of the great prefect Stefan Nemanja from the second half of the 12th century, which was purchased from the auction house "Artemide Aste" from San Marino in early May, and revealed the details of this important purchase.
The stamp was bought for 12.000 euros, its owner was Greek, and 70 people applied for the purchase.
PIt's hot, as we wrote., bought before the scheduled auction. The director of the historical museum, Dr. Dušica Bojić, told the "Vremena" portal that they communicated with the owner of the seal "whose identity we do not know because that is the rule" via emails "through the auction house", with a request to "sell the seal to the Historical Museum".
"We stated that our seal would be immediately available to the public, in a special display case, with a mirror and a magnifying glass, and the owner agreed," says Dr. Dušica Bojić.
He adds that the initial auction price of the stamp was 1000 euros, and "at the moment when we called, it had already jumped to 8.500 euros." It is interesting that although we both publicly and privately appealed to other buyers not to bid or raise the price, they did not give up. We found out about ten more who contacted the auction house with the intention of buying a seal before the scheduled auction."
"We are also grateful to 'Artemides aste' and the former owner of the seal that material gain was less important to them than the fact that this cultural asset will be in an institution and will be publicly exhibited." Because it goes without saying that with private collectors they would have achieved a higher price than the one they sold to us," says Dušica Bojić.
Otherwise, the material value of the seal is small, he explains, "it is a lead seal that hung on the charter, but for us its cultural value is extremely high considering that the Historical Museum does not have a single object from the time of Stefan Nemanja."
The historical museum paid for the purchase itself, from the funds it received from the Ministry of Culture for the purpose of purchase this year. Let us remind you that last year they bought the artwork "Young Prince Mihailo" by Dimitri Avramović, and in previous years the legacy of Ana Lunjevica, the monogram of Queen Draga, letters from Natalija and Milan Obrenović...
Today, the 20-dinar gold coin of King Milan Obrenović, minted in 1882 when Serbia was declared a kingdom, was presented to the public. It was presented to the museum by Nevena and Saša Dimitrijević, and after it was bought from the auction house "Artemides aste".
From July, after the special showcases are made, both Stefan Nemanja's seal and Milan Obrenović's gold coin will be able to be seen at the exhibition "Waiting for the permanent exhibition" that was recently opened in the History Museum of Serbia.
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
