A dozen artworks return to National Art Gallery

TIRANA, Jan. 13 – Twelve artworks taken for display at the President’s office during the 1981-2005 are back to the National Arts gallery’s premises. The painting and sculpture artworks created by Vangjush Mio, Zef Kolombi and Sali Shijaku were recollected this week as part of an initiative to collect all of the gallery’s missing pieces.
Two artworks believed to have been on display at the President’s office were not found, officials said.
“The goal of this initiative is that this priceless heritage is saved, restored and saved in the National Art Gallery’s collection and be put on display to visitors,” says Artan Shabani, the director of the Gallery of Arts.
Last December, the National Art Gallery collected the first seven artworks from the Parliament headquarters.
“These artworks belong to the collection of the National Art Gallery and in our archive there are a series of works in different institutions such as the President’s office, the Parliament, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and other government institutions,” said Shabani, adding that the artworks which have been away from the gallery since decades are in urgent need restoration.
The National Arts Gallery says it will address the prosecution office and Interpol on the missing artworks as soon as it finishes collecting all artworks who had been taken from its collection for display in key state institutions.
Some 120 artworks are estimated to have been taken away from the gallery’s collection in the past two decades, many of whom without trace and believed to be under private possession.
The Albanian National Arts Gallery was originally founded in 1954 and moved to its current location on Tirana’s central boulevard in 1974. The national collection of visual arts ranges from a collection of religious icons from the 13th to the 19th century, works from the National Renaissance and Independence period (1883-1944), the biggest painting and sculpture collection in the country from the socialist realism period (1944-1990), as well as a foreign artists’ pavilion and rotating collections of contemporary national and international art.
Some of the most important annual exhibitions organized are “Marubi,” the international artistic photography contest and “Onufri,” the international visual arts competition.
The gallery is surrounded by a lovely park, and as a special bonus at the rear of the building there are a few still-defiant Communist-era partisan statues clenching their fists at the sky, as well as imposing statues of Lenin and Stalin.