Kosovo impostors wanted to appropriate artifacts stored in Serbian museums
The director of the Folk Museum of Kosovo, Ajet Ljezi, sent letters to the directors of the Folk and Ethnographic Museums of Belgrade, Bojana Boric and Tiana Colak Antic, as well as to the President of the Serbian Academy of Science of Arts (SANU) Vladimir Kostic.
In the letter, Ljezi demanded that archaeological and cultural artifacts from Kosovo stored in Belgrade be returned to Pristina.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, Lietsi wrote that Serbian museum workers are obliged to return artifacts from the archaeological and ethnographic collection to Kosovo.
“Although they were taken from a collection for a temporary exhibition in central Serbia in the late 90s with an obligation to return them, the artifacts are still in your respected museums,” said the Pristina representative. – In the museums of Belgrade there is a total of 1 thousand 247 artifacts from the archaeological and ethnographic collection. To fulfill your obligations, I propose to create a working group consisting of representatives of four museums - the Folk Museum of Kosovo, the Ethnographic Museum of Kosovo, the Folk Museum in Belgrade and the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, as well as international experts.”
In response, the Serbian Ministry of Culture and Information issued a statement describing Pristina's demand as "another encouragement of the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo and Metohija and the fabrication of false legitimacy of pseudo-institutions."
“In a context where the threat to cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija is clearly recognized at the international level, from organized demolitions, vandalism of religious and cultural sites to infrastructure projects aimed at endangering cultural heritage, which has been going on for decades, the needs of the temporary institutions in Pristina are solely diverting attention from the threat to cultural heritage and creating the illusion of concern for cultural heritage,” the statement said.
In turn, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija under the Government of Serbia noted in its statement that “all artifacts from the territory of our autonomous region of Kosovo and Metohija are part of the cultural and historical heritage of Serbia.”
“Belgrade rightly fears that cultural and archaeological artifacts originating from Kosovo and Metohija will be endangered, because experience shows us the destructive attitude of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Pristina towards the cultural, historical and religious heritage of the state of Serbia... Monuments belonging to the category of Serbian Christian heritage in Kosovo and Metohija are under particular threat, and since the beginning of this year alone, eleven attacks on buildings and property of the Serbian Orthodox Church have been reported,” the department’s statement noted.
Thus, in Belgrade they made it clear that they are not going to transfer anything from the Serbian heritage of Kosovo to the local Albanian separatists.
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