In 2014, we painted a mural to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade. The mural was located on the facade of the Mental Health Institute at the corner of Despot Stefan Boulevard and Palmotićeva Street. Without our knowledge or consent, it was painted over just three days before the 80th anniversary of Belgrade’s liberation.
At the time, we received funding from the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia through an open call supporting visual arts projects. We also secured all the necessary permits and approvals from the Institute’s administration, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, and other relevant institutions to create the mural.
In August of this year, we were contacted by the legal department of the Institute for Mental Health with the idea of restoring the mural. On August 23, we replied via email, expressing our willingness to restore the artwork and outlining the steps that needed to be taken for the project. Since then, we’ve received no further communication, and we only found out about the removal of the mural through social media.
The removal of the mural without informing us raises serious concerns about the ownership and preservation of public art, as well as the treatment of cultural heritage in public spaces. Besides being a blatant violation of our copyright, the timing of this act—just days before the celebration of Belgrade’s liberation—makes it even more alarming. It makes us wonder who found the mural, dedicated to the memory of Belgrade’s liberators, to be a problem, and under whose orders it was erased.
