The History of the Glyptotheque of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Sa？etak The Glyptotheque of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts is a unique museum institution in Croatia with its own purpose and collection. It was founded in 1937 as the Gypsum library with the aim of collecting and presenting plaster casts of the most important cultural and historical monuments as well as original works of art in the field of sculpture. After the introduction of the Gypsum library in 1950, it was renamed the Glyptotheque of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, and today it is one of the six museum-gallery units of the Academy, as part of the Fine Arts Class. Since 1940, the museum has been housed in a former industrial building of a 19th-century leather factory that was once the largest industrial facility and complex in the city of Zagreb. Owing to the entry of the museum into a part of the complex, it has remained a rare example of the good preservation of industrial architecture since the late 19th century. The text will show the history of the museum, from its conception to the collection of specific material of plaster casts of ancient Greek sculpture, Roman provincial sculpture and sculpture of Croatian cultural heritage from the pre-Romanesque to the Renaissance periods. Over time, the museum's exhibits have been enriched with numerous relevant original works and plaster models of Croatian sculpture from the 19th century to the present, due to which the museum has specialized in the field of sculpture. The paper will show the history of the Glyptotheque and its role and importance in collecting, preserving, exhibiting and communicating one of the largest collections of sculptures in Croatia from the ancient times to the present