The competent authorities do not know whether this painting is really part of Kun's opus. The Ministry of Culture, headed by Aleksandar Bogdanovic, has announced answers to questions about the lack of documentation on Kun's work, and whether it will initiate the production of more quality bases and records of Montenegrin art. "In developed countries, premiers need to know how much money they have in art treasures. Our government did not even hear about that option. Not even the directors of cultural institutions have the responsibility for the state’s art of treasures. They just look at how to progress in their career and what their allowances are. We witness a primitive selfishness in the culture," Mitrović said.
The most to be blamed are those who run the cultural institutions: Mitrović PHOTO: Private archive
The only known piece of information about Kun's work is, according to the Assembly, its estimated value - 10,000 euros. According to the catalog of the Collection of Paintings of the Assembly of Montenegro, the dimensions of the picture are 159x110 mm, and it was made in 1953. Mitrović is not clear how it is possible for someone not to list the property: "It's realistic to make a list of the inventory and property at the end of the calendar year. Such lists cannot even be found at the National Museum, the Maritime Museum, or the Department for the Protection of Cultural Property. As much guilt is at the top management of the state, the people who run these institutions are equally to blame," says Mitrović, and claims that while he was the head of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Property he was searching for the inventory register at the time, but that his employees "never heard of it". The family of Đorđe Andrejević Kun does not contain any information on the portrait of Ivan Milutinović from 1953 in their records. In his monograph, all three of his works date from 1950.
The family Vijesti" contacted did not rule out the possibility that the picture came out directly from the studio, but refer to the monograph by Momčilo Stevanović "Đorđe Andrejević Kun", where all the famous works of this author were recorded. In the monograph, issued by the Serbian Academy of Science and Art (SANU) in 1977, it is alleged that Kun painted Ivan Milutinović three times and that all three works were made in 1950. The monograph states that one of them, 162x113 mm, unsigned, and is at the Art Gallery of Cetinje.
However, the National Museum of Montenegro has no information that Kun's work has ever been in Cetinje.
Đorđe Andrejević Kun was born in 1904 in Poland and died in Belgrade in 1964. He was a participant of the Spanish Civil War and the National Liberation War. He was proclaimed a master-painter in 1947. He was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade and rector of the Academy of Fine Arts.
"Vijesti" had earlier announced that the museums in Cetinje are lacking about 3,000 items, for now of undetermined value.
Text by Tina Popovic, on October 25th, 2018, read more at Vijesti
