22.08.2013.

Photo exhibition "Visits of Celebrities to the Military Museum"

At the Gallery of the Military Museum in Belgrade fortress today, an exhibition of photographs "Visits of Celebrities to the Military Museum" has been opened, marking the anniversary of 135 years of that cultural institution.

Opening the exhibition, Commandant of the Military Academy, Major General Mladen Vuruna, said that the Military Museum, throughout history, was a good host to official delegations, officials, politicians, royal families and public figures, and numerous photographs from the collection of the museum, negatives, as well as two official albums with photographs of visits of high delegations are evidence of their stay.

- Within the display, hundreds of photos taken over the past eight decades at the high official visits to the War Museum were chronologically presented – General Vuruna said, adding that the documentary property of these photo records are excellent material in terms of military analysis of the social and political life both in our country, and in the world, pointing to the lively international cooperation between our countries, but also the importance of the Military Museum in presenting our history.

Speaking about the importance of this cultural institution, Acting Head of the Military Museum Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Mijatovic said that building remembers the wars, dynasties, changes in social structure, over 135 years, but that, since the opening of the first exhibition, it has always been at the most beautiful and the most prominent place in Kalemegdan.

- The exhibition and catalogue that are now before us are the work of the curator of the collection of photographs Natasa Tomic who prepared the display in cooperation with the studio A Atelier - Lieutenant Colonel Mijatovic said, recalling the exhibitions and activities of the Military Museum, in the country and abroad, that have marked the year behind us.

The display testifies about visits of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, Field Marshal Montgomery, Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, Marshal Zhukov, the last of Shah of Afghanistan Mohammad Zahir and the revolutionary Che Guevara. The eye of the camera perpetuated also Josip Broz Tito during the opening of the Military Museum after the reconstruction of the building in 1961, and then the visit of Egyptian President Nasser, the Italian politician Palmiro Togliatti, Norwegian King Olav V, the Dutch Prince Bernard, wife of the President of SFR Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union Jovanka Broz and Nina Khrushchev, Queen Elizabeth II, the Belgian King Baudouin I, Queen Margaret II of Denmark , French Presi

dent Francois Mitterrand, Britain's Prince Charles, Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid, Spain's King Juan Carlos, Prince Tomislav Karadjordjevic and the creator of the automatic rifle Mikhail Timofievich Kalashnikov.

The exhibition shows the significant moments in the history of the museum such as opening other display on 20 April 1937 that was opened by the Prince Regent Paul Karadjordjevic and attended by representatives of the whole of then government and many guests from abroad.

Exhibition Visits of Celebrities to the Military Museum will be open until 22 September.