As we've previously reported, the Apoxyomenos Museum on Mali Lošinj was nominated for the title of European Museum of the Year among as many as 39 other European museums, from Russia to the United Kingdom.
While it has not received the title of the best museum in Europe, it has been given the Special Commendation by jury member Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, and which was received by Zrinka Ettinger Starčić, the director of the Apoxyomenos Museum.
The European Museum of the Year award is one of the most significant awards any museum in Europe can get, given by the European Museum Fund and supported by the Council of Europe, to the most innovative, high-quality, considerate, sustainable and responsible approaches.
This year's top award, The European Museum of the Year Award 2019, goes to the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave Leiden, Netherlands, for the "exceptional public quality of this museum, which results from its artful approach to communicating science." The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe decided to present its Museum Prize 2019 to the Museum für Kommunikation, Bern, Switzerland, "for the creative way it promotes media literacy in the service of responsible citizenship in a functioning democracy.''
The commendation given to the Apoxyomenos Museum is explained as follows: "Muzej Apoksiomena takes an innovative and creative approach to the display of the exceptional sculpture that it has been created to celebrate. Contrasting styles of presentation create a dramatic approach to its central treasure, which is finally revealed in all its splendour."
It was the only Croatian museum to be nominated this year.
The awards ceremony was held at the Sarajevo National Theatre, hosted by the last year's Council of Europe award winner, Sarajevo's War Childhood Museum. Every year, that ceremony is the largest gathering of European experts in museology, and this year it was attended by over 200 experts from more than twenty European countries.
