A phoenix rises from the ashes

The museum is home to a large collection of memorabilia from the Olympic Winter Games and to artworks devoted to the event by local painters and foreign artists, such as Andy Warhol, Henry Moore and Michelangelo Pistoletto. It also houses many items donated from around the world in support of Sarajevo, and features a section dedicated to the 2019 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival, which Sarajevo and East Sarajevo jointly staged.

The original building housing the museum – an Austro-Hungarian villa dating to the early 20th century – was severely damaged when it was bombed at the start of the Bosnian War of 1992-1995. One of the city’s most iconic buildings, it was specifically targeted by the forces encircling the city. Many of Sarajevo’s other architectural jewels were also severely damaged or destroyed in the resulting 1,425-day siege.

The Olympic Museum, which originally opened on 8 February 1984, is one of the first of them to be restored to its former glory. Its reopening in October 2020, financed by the IOC, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kanton Sarajevo, the City of Sarajevo and UNESCO, was a symbolic milestone in the city’s continuing recovery from the conflict.

Though some of the museum’s memorabilia was lost during the bombardment, 85 per cent of it was salvaged thanks to the efforts of its staff and the wider community. Kept safe for the remainder of the war, this memorabilia later went on display at a temporary museum opened at the city’s Zetra Olympic Complex in 2004, on the 20th anniversary of the Olympic Winter Games.

The Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage has assisted the staff of the temporary museum at Zetra and the newly restored one. As well as providing them with access to the Olympic Multimedia Library, including the official Sarajevo 1984 film, and it has trained them on how to use the Foundation’s resources.

Modelled on the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Sarajevo’s Olympic Museum staged over 300 events on the themes of sport and art in the eight years prior to the Bosnian War. Its opening was part of the extensive Olympic Winter Games cultural programme, the centrepiece of which was the ceremonial opening of the 87th IOC Session, which included ballet performances at the Sarajevo National Theatre. The programme also featured concerts, fashion shows and art exhibitions, showcasing the work of painters, engravers, artists and sculptors from across former Yugoslavia.