Croatian president removes Tito artwork from residence
Croatia's newly-elected president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, has fulfilled a campaign pledge by removing a statue and other pieces of art linked to a controversial ex-Yugoslav leader from her official residence.
Grabar-Kitarovic, Croatia’s first female president, gave a famous bust of former Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, Josip Broz Tito, to a museum in the Zagorje region, near the country’s capital city of Zagreb, a statement from the presidential office said on Wednesday.
She also conferred more than 100 artworks and artifacts linked to the late communist leader, whom she labeled a “dictator,” to other museums in the region.
Grabar-Kitarovic became president of Croatia last month after winning a run-off vote in January.
During her campaign drive, Grabar-Kitarovic promised to remove Tito's famous marble statue – sculpted by the prominent Croatian artist, Antun Augustincic – from the official presidential residence.
The announcement, however, sparked an intense public debate in Croatia, as Tito remains a controversial figure, adored by some but seen as a dictator by others.
Former president of Croatia, Stipe Mesic, criticized Grabar-Kitarovic's actions, calling them an “attempt to remove from the memory the anti-fascist fight, one of the brightest pages in Croatia's history.”
Tito played various roles in the former Yugoslav federation, of which Croatia was a part, until his death in 1980. Under his rule, Yugoslavia remained independent of the then Soviet Union.
A decade after his death, Yugoslavia collapsed in a series of wars and subsequently broke into six countries, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.
GMA/KA/SS
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