Following the highly acclaimed exhibition "Partisan and Fragonard: The Collection of Paintings by Jovanka Broz," held at the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts from May to August 2022, and subsequently at the City Museum of Sombor, it has now arrived at our museum.

The authors of the exhibition presented the dual significance of the displayed works: on one hand, these are artistic items that the public has not had the opportunity to see before, and on the other, they represent an imaginary museum of memory of Jovanka Broz through which parts and details of her life can be reconstructed, creating images of the time in which she lived.

One of the most important aspects, if not the leading one, is the process of conservation and restoration, considering that a significant portion of the exhibited paintings and items were kept in inadequate conditions in a private home. The importance of this process is substantial; the artworks and items from Jovanka Broz's collection were processed according to all standards and prepared for exhibition, and subsequently for storage in depots, as cultural heritage of an era.

The preparation of this exhibition took a long time as all 36 works underwent comprehensive conservation and restoration procedures. These were carried out by conservators from the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, led by senior conservator Marijeta Sidovski and conservator Natasha Skrinjik Cvetković from the Museum of Yugoslavia. Then, two art historians, Ana Panić, senior curator at the Museum of Yugoslavia, and Nikola Ivanović, curator at the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, processed the works from a professional standpoint and jointly determined the themes and methodological approaches.

Marijeta Sidovski, senior conservator at the Gallery of Matica srpska, and Natasha Skrinjik Cvetković, conservator at the Museum of Yugoslavia, spoke about the process of conservation and restoration of the paintings exhibited as part of "Partisan and Fragonard," and the challenges they faced.