Miljenko Domijan

Miljenko Domijan, art historian, conservator, intellectual, man of extraordinary professional biography and life experience, died in Zadar at the age of 79 after a long and serious illness.

Born in Rab, after primary schooling in his hometown, he graduated from the Rijeka School of Civil Engineering, majoring in architecture, and in 1967 he graduated in fine arts from the Academy of Pedagogy in Rijeka. He then studied art history and philosophy at the Faculty of Arts in Zadar. Since 1968 he has been an external collaborator of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments. After graduating in 1972, he officially became a conservation trainee at the institution, writes Zadarski.hr.

After completing a specialist course in architectural heritage conservation at ICCROM in Rome, he became Director of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Zadar in 1976. In the period from 1976 to 1991, under his leadership, many architectural monuments, especially sacral monuments, were restored and presented with high quality, and the restoration of movable monuments was carried out.

In the early 1990s, Domijan became chief conservator at the State Administration for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Monuments, and then at the newly established Ministry of Culture. Since then, he has organised and led numerous conservation projects. At the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence, he organised the evacuation and preservation of priceless, mainly sacral, movable heritage in the area of the Zadar Archdiocese, as well as the physical protection of architectural monuments. During the war operations, and especially after the end of the fighting, he led the restoration of a number of very important architectural monuments in Zadar, especially in the hinterland. He was also active in the reconstruction of areas outside Zadar, from Dubrovnik to Vukovar. In Dubrovnik, he chaired the Expert Advisory Committee with UNESCO representatives, and in Sibenik, he chaired the Committee for the restoration of the dome of St James Cathedral. He was regularly present in professional institutions dealing with the restoration of the cultural heritage of the Danube region, especially in Vukovar and Ilok. For the restoration of Orthodox monuments destroyed in the war in Croatia, he received a high decoration from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

For several years, in cooperation with the competent experts and institutions, he led underwater archaeological research campaigns, took care of professional restoration, conservation and appropriate presentation, and one of the most important achievements of this work was the coordination of the restoration and musealization of the bronze ancient sculpture of Apoksiomenos in Mali Lošinj.

He has been involved in the organisation and exhibition of many major presentations of Croatian cultural heritage, such as the exhibition of Zadar's sacral heritage, Sjaj zadrskih treasuries, at the Klovićevi dvori Gallery in 1990, and abroad, the exhibition Croatians - Religion, Culture and Art at the Vatican Museums, as well as four major exhibitions in France: An exhibition on the Angevin royal family at the Benedictine Abbey of Fontevraud , an exhibition on the Croatian Renaissance at the French Renaissance Museum at the Château Écouen, an exhibition on Croatian sacred medieval art at the Cluny Museum in Paris, and an exhibition on the Apocsiomenes at the Louvre.

He has received numerous awards in Croatia and abroad for his work in the field of preservation and restoration of cultural heritage.

He has published professional texts and articles on art in numerous publications. In 2001, he published the art historical monograph Rab, City of Art, and in 2020, the catalogue of the photographic exhibition From the Eye to the Heart. In his comprehensive monograph Armenia sacra - A Pilgrimage into Sacred Architecture, he has combined his long-standing interest in Armenian history, sacred architecture and photography.

Miljenko Domijan has selflessly shared his conservation knowledge and breadth with Slovenian conservators and restorers. He has worked with many of the older generations in various forums of the former Commonwealth. He has been a member of many international expert commissions for restoration projects in Slovenia, including the conservation and restoration of the Quaglia paintings in the Ljubljana Cathedral, the reconstruction of the Baroque façade of the Minorite Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Ptuj, the discussions on the restoration of the Carthusian Church and, last but not least, the restoration of the Kampor Memorial Complex in Rab. He has led unforgettable excursions of Slovenian conservators and restorers around Kvarner and Dalmatia, revealing to us the gems of these places. He brought to Ljubljana, against all odds, the famous Greek sculpture of Apoksiomenos from Mali Lošinj and an exhibition of photographs by the great Zagreb photographer Nino Vranić, who took an outstanding collection of photographs of Slovenia's top monuments for the Ars Sloveniae collection. He has also exhibited his photographs in the atrium of the Ljubljana City Hall.

Miljenko Domijan was an outstanding intellectual, a cosmopolitan, a great democrat without any political background. He lived with and for his heritage. He did not divide it nationally, or by authority, or by religion. He was direct, sometimes unsparingly frank, but always sincere and well-meaning. And with all his professionalism, he was extremely simple and friendly.

Obituary and photos by Jernej Hudolin
(the Croatian part of the memorial is taken from an article by Lada Novak Starčević, Jutranji list)