Marshal, Josep Tito was President of Yugoslavia from 1943 to 1980. Early in his presidency he wrote
in the Liberation magazine* title 'Our Optimism and Faith'. He was reflecting on the recently ended WWII, but he may as well have been referring to museums, and with the magic of the blog and some less than subtle editing it turns out he was.
"Our sacrifices are terrible. I can safely say that there is no other part of the cultural offer which has been devastated on a vaster scale than museums. Every tenth museum could perish in this struggle in which we are forced to make savings for our politicians; curators will freeze without clothing and die without medication.
Nevertheless our optimism and faith have proved justified. The greatest gain of this conflict between austerity and culture lies in the fact that it has drawn together everything that was good in humanity. The unity of the museums, galleries and heritage sites is the best guarantee to the peoples of the world that the mistakes of the past will never again be repeated."
*Page 3, United Committee of South-Slavonic Americans, 1945
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