Museum of Broken Relationships

The museum began in 2006 as a travelling exhibition by two Zagreb artists, Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic, who had ended their own relationship and started collecting the objects other people were left holding after theirs. It toured internationally, and the permanent museum opened in Zagreb in 2010; it won the Kenneth Hudson Award for the most innovative museum in Europe in 2011. Each item is displayed with the date, the place and a short text written by the donor, and the range runs from the funny to the unbearable - toys, letters, an axe, a prosthetic limb. Donations still arrive from around the world.

History

The museum was founded by two Zagreb artists, the film producer Olinka Vištica and the sculptor Dražen Grubišić. When their four-year relationship ended in 2003 they joked about a museum for the things left over; three years later Grubišić came back to the idea in earnest, and they began asking friends to give objects left behind by their break-ups. The collection was first shown in 2006 at the Glyptotheque in Zagreb, as part of the 41st Zagreb Salon, and then toured the world, from Argentina to Singapore and South Africa; between 2006 and 2010 more than 200,000 people saw it, and visitors kept adding to it - more than 30 objects came from Berliners alone in 2007. After failing to interest the Ministry of Culture in a permanent home, the founders rented a 300-square-metre space in the Upper Town with their own money, making it Zagreb's first privately owned museum; it opened in October 2010, and in May 2011 it received the Kenneth Hudson Award of the European Museum Forum. By then the travelling show had visited 68 cities in 35 countries (Wikipedia, Museum of Broken Relationships).

What you'll find

• Objects from ended relationships - donated with the donor's own text.
• Started in 2006 as a touring show - permanent in Zagreb from 2010.
• A European museum award in 2011 - for innovation.
• A range from funny to devastating - the texts do the work.

When to go

Year round; it is entirely indoors. Two hours.

Before you go

Some texts deal with abuse, illness and death and land hard - this is not a light hour for everyone. The museum is small and reading everything takes longer than the space suggests. It gets crowded in the middle of the day.

Nearby

St Mark's church and the upper town are around it; the cathedral is below.

Key facts