| Admin/Biog History | Ante Topic Mimara (1898-1987) was an art collector and philanthropist who also worked as a consultant to return plundered art to Yugoslavia. It was claimed by several art historians that he stole many of the works of art in his own collection during the Second World War whilst working at the Yugoslav collection point for the military. He subsequently donated several thousand items from his collection to the Mimara Museum in Zagreb and the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade.
Sewell's hand-annotated copy of Guide Through Part of the Ante Topic-Mimara Collection dating from 1983 gives his opinions on the works. In 1984 Sewell and Colin Simpson wrote about Mimara's art collection for The Sunday Times, and Sewell revisited this subject in his articles for various publications. During the early 2000s, Sewell visited Croatia on the invitation of Lady Jadranka Beresfore-Peirse, who was the founder of International Trust for Croatian Monuments. They had commissioned several writers to contribute essays for a book on Croatian art and Sewell wrote a chapter for the book titled Museums of Zagreb, which included mention of the Mimara Museum. The book was published as: Norwich, J.J. et al. (2009). Croatia: Aspects of Art, Architecture and Cultural Heritage. London: Frances Lincoln Limited. A copy of this, together with related material can be found in: BS/6/1/8 - Books and lectures: Books: Croatia: Aspects of Art, Architecture and Cultural Heritage. |
| Description | Includes:
-Antunovic, M., and Franc, K. (1983). Guide Through Part of the Ante Topic Mimara Collection. Zagreb: Spektar. This publication has many of Sewell's annotations recording his opinions of the works of art in the collection
-copy of a letter from Sewell to Miss Gujinovic, dated 19 February 2010, concerning the Mimara collection
-research material
Also includes the following draft articles by Sewell:
-Ante Topic Mimara, written for The Sunday Times Magazine in 1984
-Slovene and Croat Museums, written for Antique in 1991
-Zagreb, written for the Evening Standard in 2007
-The Mimara Museum written for The International Trust for Croatian Museums in 2007 |
| Image Caption | Two pages showing Sewell's comments on works of art in the Ante Topic Mimara Collection, undated |