May the 11th, 2023 - The much loved and wildly popular Museum of Illusions, which attracts large numbers each year here in Zagreb, has been awarded the Franchise Brand Leader Award 2022.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, approximately 220 franchises are currently active across the Republic of Croatia in various industries, and in the last three and a half years, there has been a noticeable growth of domestic franchises. Among the names on that ever-expanding list is the Museum of Illusions, and it has been declared the winner of the Franchise of the Year 2022 Award.

The Franchise Brand Leader Award 2022 was launched last year by the Croatian Association for Franchise Business-FIP and Darko Bukovic, the director of the online radio Poslovni FM/Business FM.

The fact that there is a lot of room for the export of various kinds of Croatian franchises has been well and truly showcased by the examples of last year's awarded car rental companies Carwiz International and Surf 'n' Fries, as well as this year's main winner of the award - the Museum of Illusions.

In addition to the Franchise of the Year 2022 Award, the Museum of Illusions also received the award for the best Croatian export franchise and for the biggest export breakthrough. This particular unique museum franchise will represent the Republic of Croatia at the franchise fair in Frankfurt and will also compete for the "2023 European Franchise Award" at the end of September this year in the Belgian capital of Brussels.

Since its beginnings back in 2015, the Museum of Illusions has expanded from the City of Zagreb to more than 40 locations in 25 countries around the world. According to the plan, the office and museum will open this year in Atlanta, as well as in several other cities across the pond in the United States of America.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated news section.

February the 23rd, 2023 - The list of the most popular Croatian museums which are dotted all over the country has been published. From Dubrovnik to Hrvatsko Zagorje, here are the favourites.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, visitors are returning en mass to Croatian museums. According to data from the Museum Documentation Centre (MDC), throughout 2022, 35.6% more art lovers visited Croatian museums than they did in 2021 - with a total of slightly less than 3.5 million visitors (3,458,338). Nevertheless, attendance is still 34 percent lower than it was in the last pre-pandemic year of 2019.

The most visited of the Croatian museums last year was the Archaeological Museum of Istria, under which the collections in the Pula Arena stand out the most, having been visited by 509,778 people, a very encouraging 200,000 more than the year before. This attendance brings the numbers for this museum back to those from 2018 and 2019, and the jump can be attributed to the growth in the overall number of tourists visiting and discovering Istria.

In second place are the Museums of Hrvatsko Zagorje with 301,508 visitors, which is a noticeable increase of 13.4% when compared to the reference year of pre-pandemic 2019.

The third most visited of the Croatian museums is Zagreb's Nikola Tesla Technical Museum with 259,493 visits and an increase of 33% when compared to 2019. Compared to 2021, however, the growth in terms of the number visitors has been even greater, as high as 136 percent.

The Museum Documentation Centre writes that this museum achieved this impressive growth through numerous events and educational activities – 25 open exhibitions and 4,769 professional tours. In addition, the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum opened its doors to other museums across the City of Zagreb that were left without space due to the damage left by the March 2020 earthquake.

Dubrovnik's museums are in fourth place with 235,526 visitors, while in fifth place is the Museum of the City of Split, which, together with Diocletian's cellars, attracted 210,103 visitors in total.

There was also a significant increase in the number of students who, compared to last year, visited various Croatian museums almost four times more often. This can be attributed, the MDC explains, to the cessation of the application of epidemiological measures put in place back during the pandemic, and the most active in working with young people were the Museums of Hrvatsko Zagorje, which were visited by 77,237 children from primary and secondary schools.

That museum is followed by the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum, in whose programmes 49,257 children participated, while in third place came the Museum of the City of Zagreb, which attracted 23,965 of the youngest visitors last year.

Croatian museums and galleries were visited by 912,594 tourists, or 386,116 more than the previous year, almost two-thirds of which were accounted for by just three of the country's most regularly visited museums - the Archaeological Museum of Istria, the Museum of the City of Split and the Museums of Hrvatsko Zagorje. Interestingly, the Dubrovnik museums located in Croatia's most famous tourist destination still don't keep any records of foreign visitors.

If we look at the cities individually, Croatian museums are still the most visited in Zagreb, where, despite the fact that almost half of Zagreb's museum houses are closed for constructive renovation, 22% of all museum visits at the national level were recorded.

For more, check out our news section.

August the 4th, 2022 - The City of Zagreb's Backo mini express became a museum for little trains back in 2019, and it is now being threatened with closure. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Mladen Miletic writes, Zagreb's Backo mini express turned little train museum attracted global interest thanks to its "setting" of 150 trains and their compositions per 1,500 rails in a mere 350 square metres of exhibit space, and in addition to Croatian and foreign tourists, the museum was also visited journalistic teams from China, Japan, Korea, Australia, and elsewhere.

During his visit to Zagreb, world-renowned Danish conductor Michael Schønwandt also visited the location in the very heart of Zagreb (Gunduliceva). But the global coronavirus pandemic and the tragic Zagreb earthquakes of 2020 saw the trend of many visits turned very much on its head.

“Over the last five years, we've been able to get around one hundred guests a day, and today we're record these figures on a monthly basis. In five years of existence, we haven't experienced such a bad summer. There are almost no Croatian guests visiting anymore, and foreign ones have become very rare.

The issue being faced by the Backo mini express train museum is also exacerbated heavily by the ongoing renovation of buildings in the heart of the city following March 2020's devastating earthquake, meaning that everything has been regularly being covered in dust, there has been construction work, there has been scaffolding,'' explained Antun Urbic Backo.

As the number of visitors continues to fall day by day, and Zagreb's tourist traffic is nowhere near at the level it was before the global coronavirus pandemic emerged, the future of the Backo mini express train museum in the very heart of the Croatian capital is being called into question, with the threat of closure continually hanging over their heads.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

July the 11th, 2022 - The famous Zagreb attraction which draws crowds from all over each and every year, the Museum of Illusions, is set to move its headquarters across the pond to the USA.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, the City of Zagreb's much loved Museum of Illusions, a Croatian creation that received an additional spring in its step in terms of global expansion with the entry of the venture capital fund Invera Equity Partners, is moving its headquarters across the Atlantic Ocean to the USA.

Although in the business of selling (optical) illusions according to a successful museum-style formula, according to which their network today consists of 37 museums across the world in 21 countries, business logic demands its own set of rules. They want to be perceived as a company and not merely a museum, which is why they're opening an office in Atlanta in order to achieve better valuations once the time comes for the exit of the aforementioned capital fund and the eventual payment of returns to its investors.

"We belong to the entertainment industry, the ''mid-way'' segment of the market that refers to attractions lasting up to two hours for which visitors are willing to pay between 20 and 70 US dollars, it's a concept quite similar to that of Madame Tussauds,'' illustrated Invera partner Slaven Kordic. Invera Equity Partners is otherwise currently the only venture capital fund present here on the Croatian market that sought its lucrative investment in the entertainment industry segment.

"Croatia could have many more such investments, there are homegrown ideas with similar potential when it comes to spreading to Western Europe and all the way over to the USA. We have five more target companies with whom we're talking about potential investment," Kordic revealed. How much they've actually invested in Metamorfosis, the company behind the project of the Museum of Illusions, since July 2021 - he didn't discuss.

It was the completion of that particular investment, which saw the capital fund acquire a majority share of 65 percent, that the venture capital fund industry recognised as the best private equity investment of the past year. It's worth mentioning that the competition was quite fierce because Provectus' investments in Keindl Sport, Adria Dental Group and the Aiva polyclinic, Prosperus' acquisition of Neos and Rohatyn's sale of Pet Network International, which includes Pet Centre, all competed for the title.

Despite the move of the Museum of Illusions' headquarters across the pond to Atlanta, the service centre, i.e. the "brain" of the operation, will remain at home in Croatia.

"Zagreb will be a global hub where people from all over the world will work with the ''know how'' of running a museum, creating exhibits and marketing, while the management functions will be moved to the USA," said Kordic. The head of the company since October has been American Jonathan Benjamin, a renowned manager from the USA who honed his experience in the development of the business of Altitude Trampoline Parks and Briggo Coffee, who, alongside the team in Atlanta, is focused on making strong step forward for the Museum of Illusions on the American market.

Unlike, for example, entrepreneur Mate Rimac, who fiercely branded all segments of his business (despite all expectations and bets) here at home in Croatia, where he was supported by strategic investors, Kordic says that the circumstances of venture capital funds are somewhat different, as there is a huge emphasis on ensuring eventual financial returns for investors.

"It's less important where they're from and who runs the business, the key is that the majority of employees will remain here in Croatia. We want to achieve a situation in which the company is perceived as American in order to achieve better returns one day when it comes to those payouts,'' explained Kordic. The perception of an "American" company in practice is very specific, the return could reach 15x EBITDA, while a Croatian company would have to count on far less than that.

The investment time horizon of Invera EP is five years or less, and this is the period in which the fund wants to transform the business by taking it to a higher and more secure level. Their ambitions are great, but so is the potential, according to investors, so the initial projections for the eventual investor exit have been corrected to a massive "200 million euros plus".

"We've already received two offers for sale from Europe, but we rejected them because we believe that there's a lot of great potential with investments and development,'' said Kordic, adding that they want to achieve this with strong names in management, among which are Teo Sirola at the head and Ivan Stipancic in charge of finances. Co-founder Roko Zivkovic, without whom the idea of ​​the Museum of Illusions and all of its accompanying optical illusions and puzzles around the world wouldn't even exist, is still within the company as an advisor to the Management Board.

Croatian wisdom

The largest investors in the fund are the European Investment Fund with 30 million euros, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with 10 million euros, and three domestic pension funds, Raiffeisen, Erste and PBZ CO, cumulatively supporting it with 14.5 million euros. Among the investors is also the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Fund with 4.5 million euros, while partners Slaven Kordic and Kemal Sikiric and their employees invested another 1.5 million euros.

Receiving the award for the best private investment of the year, Roko Zivkovic said on Wednesday in Zagreb that when they started the Museum of Illusions project, they never dreamed that such an expansion of a project made entirely in Croatia could happen, pointing out that in addition to the 37 current locations of the museum around the world, another 12 locations are currently under construction.

For more, check out Made in Croatia.

December 15, 2021 - In the last few months, the Museum of Illusions has opened its doors in new attractive locations around the world: Budapest, Milan, and Tel Aviv. Thus, this Croatian franchise has expanded to 22 countries on as many as four continents.

One of the largest Museums of Illusions in Europe opened in Budapest

One of the largest Museums of Illusions in Europe has opened its doors in the heart of Budapest. Although we are used to the fantastic exhibits in the Museum in Ilica, where it all started, the new museum in Budapest is already falling off its feet. With eight themed rooms, dozens of installations, unique holograms, a Vortex tunnel, unique logic development games, and many amazing illusions, visitors to the latest museum in the Hungarian capital can learn and experience how human perception and brain work. Remember in the Museum of Illusions nothing is as it seems, and optical illusions will delight everyone from the youngest to the oldest. An ames room where all the walls are trapezoidal and nothing is as it seems will disturb your perception of who is actually how big. You can take photos in an inverted room where everything is turned 180 °, and in an endless room where mirrors cover every surface, you will not find a way out so easily. In a world of fun and fascinating tricks, everyone, from small to big, can figure out why we see things our brains can’t comprehend. We can learn a lot about perspective, optical illusions, and the wonders of science and the human brain.

Photo: Museum of Illusions (Budapest)

Along with Budapest, new locations: Milan and Tel Aviv

An incredible entrepreneurial story from Zagreb's Ilica has traveled all over the world, and now all major world capitals want to have one copy of the Museum of Illusions. Thus, museums were recently opened in Milan and Tel Aviv. Milan has thus become the 34th city in the world with such an interactive museum that offers an interesting visual and educational experience. Inside, you're allowed to laugh, scream, run, paint and do anything that is not allowed in other museums. The Museum of Illusions is not static, it is a space that allows people creativity and entertainment and that is why visitors around the world adore it. The museum collection consists of more than 70 attractions covering science, mathematics, biology, and psychology. The Tel Aviv Museum is one in a series of attractive world locations. Israel thus got a museum that will work seven days a week, and which will change the exhibition every season, by supplementing it with new exhibits. Visitors there can learn a lot about perspective, optical perception, the human brain, and science through unconventional exhibits to present and learn why our eyes see things that our brain does not understand.

Coordination from Zagreb

The Museum of Illusions is one of the fastest-growing franchises in the world. Budapest, Milan, and Tel Aviv have joined the impressive list of 35 world cities such as New York, Chicago, Dallas, Orlando, Shanghai, Dubai, Paris, New Delhi, Athens, Cairo, Vienna, Madrid, Stuttgart, Belgrade, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and many others where you can visit the Museum of Illusions. It is a true 21st-century museum, which at the same time entertains, fascinates, and challenges your senses. The whole story started in Zagreb, from two friends and founders of the company Metamorfoza, Tomislav Pamuković, and Roko Živković. This year, the story continued in the form of a change in ownership structure. Namely, Invera Equity Partners, a private equity fund management company, has finalized its investment in Metarmofoza. Invera thus acquired a majority (65%) stake in the company and undertook to increase the company's capital in the amount of EUR 3 million. The goal of the partnership is to further expand in the world, through franchising, but also through a business model in which Metamorphosis would open and manage museums in all major cities around the world. The company's headquarters are still in Zagreb, where a team of about 20 people is working on the further development of the company, from design, engineering, and construction of new museums, to the development of new exhibits and further expansion of the concept of the Museum of Illusions.

"From our goal to provide Zagreb with a place that combines entertainment and education, an idea was created that conquered the world. We have become the largest chain of private museums in the world and this is a story that has a serious future. We believe that the concept of "edutainment" has finally received the attention it deserves because it is easiest for everyone to learn and adopt new information when we have a good time. With the opening of museums in Budapest, Milan and Tel Aviv, this list of cities is only expanding, which makes us incredibly happy.”, said the founders Tomislav Pamuković and Roko Živković.

"We are pleased to invest in this concept, which has already left a big mark on the global level, and we believe that an even brighter future awaits it. Although the company is relatively young, their great and innovative concept of ‘edutainment’ has a great future and we are sure that it will develop more and more. We look forward to future projects.”, said Slaven Kordić from Invera Equity Partners.

Find out more about the Museum of Illusions here. You can also follow the Museum of Illusions on Facebook, Instagram, and TripAdvisor.

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

October the 26th, 2021 - Losinj hotels have been recognised once again for their wellness and spa offers, putting this beautiful part of Croatia firmly on the radar of those tourists who opt for that type of holiday, and there are more and more of them.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, Losinj's popular Hotel Bellevue, a member of the luxury hotel brand Losinj Hotels & Villas, has climbed to the very ''top of the world'' when it comes to spa and wellness offers this year. The Spa Clinic Hotel Bellevue is the winner of the World’s Best Hotel Spa 2021, which has been being awarded by the World Spa Awards for six years in a row now with the aim of promoting and rewarding quality in the increasingly popular spa and wellness industry.

This Losinj hotel also won at the Europe’s Best Hotel Spa 2021 and Croatia’s Best Hotel Spa awards. In the same selection, Vitality Punta from Veli Losinj, another hotel from the Jadranka group, won the title of the best wellness hotel in all of Croatia.

For Losinj hotels, these aren't the only awards in tourism which were won throughout the month of October. As part of the fourteenth International Conference on Cultural Tourism in Europe, which was held on Thursday in Athens, the project of sustainable cultural tourism from Nerezinac camp, also in Losinj, was awarded.

At that conference organised by the European Cultural Tourism Network, this Losinj project won second place in the category "Archaeological Sites and Museums as Cultural Tourism Attractions".

The first place also went to another incredible Croatian museum, the Museum of Krapina Neanderthals and the Husnjakovo site, while the third place went to the City Museum of Zenica. According to the Tourist Board of the town of Mali Losinj, awards were given to various projects from all over Europe in five more categories.

Among the winners were other impressive Croatian museums, for example, the first place in the category "Walking Tourism and Slow Travel - Synergies with Cultural Tourism" was won by the Rab Archaeological Museum, and the Zagreb Chocolate Museum was also a hit.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

ZAGREB, 25 Sept, 2021 - A poll by the Zagreb-based Museum Documentation Centre (MDC) covering five Croatian museums which in recent years had the largest number of visitors shows that the two peak months of this tourist season have stopped a steep decline in the number of museum visitors caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The poll shows that the Pula-based Istria Museum of Archeology, the Split City Museum, the Dubrovnik Museums, the Museums of the Croatian Zagorje, and the Zagreb-based Klovićevi Dvori gallery saw an 84.9% increase in the number of visitors compared to the same period of 2020, which accounts for 70% of visitors to those museums during the last pre-pandemic summer of 2019.

The MDC says that a favourable epidemiological situation and good tourism results in July and August 2021 have strongly reflected on the number of museum visitors but notes that the actual contribution of this year's tourist season to museums' results in 2021 will be known only in early 2022.

Kocijan: Most visited world museums still far from being optimistic

The world's most visited museums have still not published data on visitor numbers in the first months following lockdown lifting but MDC director Maja Kocijan says they are certainly far from being optimistic.

Unlike Croatian museums, museums elsewhere in Europe were closed this year as well and once the lockdown was lifted, most of them have had to comply with much stricter epidemiological rules, she said.

Kocijan is not optimistic about the overall figures for Croatia for this year.

"The dramatic drop in visitor numbers and income was stopped for a while this summer but new waves of the pandemic have extended the biggest museum crisis ever into 2021. The season is over, the pandemic unfortunately isn't, new restrictions are on the horizon and the 84.9% increase in visitor numbers in the Croatian museums most attractive to tourists will be neutralised by the negative statistics caused by the pandemic and (2020) earthquakes," Kocijan said, recalling that one-third of Zagreb museums, including the biggest national museums, were entering the autumn closed, preparing for evacuation so that their post-earthquake reconstruction could start.

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May 14, 2021 - Croatian Museums will Celebrate International Museum Day on May 18th alongside their colleagues worldwide.

May 18th is International Museum Day. Croatian museums will participate as well. Not only that, but they need to get creative during this era of social distancing. As tportal reports, the theme of this year’s museum day is “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”. It is not difficult to see why this theme makes sense nowadays. Museums have had to struggle with the inability to work properly within the last year. COVID-related restrictions and lack of visitors took a toll on these institutions. Many will join this year’s celebration offering virtual tours of their exhibits, rather than live visits.

Zagreb Museums

To add insult to injury, many Zagreb museums also suffered earthquake damages during the last 12 months. This is why Ethnographic Museum is organising a two-day conference about museum collection storages. These are crucial for the preservation of museum material in unexpected situations.

On International Museum Day, the National Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb is offering free entrance to the exhibition entitled “Rafael – at the Outcome of a Myth”. Museum’s social media pages will also show a video where the members of the public will voice their opinions on the future of museums.

Croatian History Museum is currently closed for the public. Still, it is setting up a new exhibition entitled “Sword – once upon a time…”. This exhibition will open to visitors on the 19th of May.

If you are looking for something a bit different try the Croatian Naïve Art Museum. They are organising a tasting inspired by the museums' exhibits. Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb is staging mural painting events, among other things.

Rest of Croatia

Museum of Samobor is organising a children’s workshop called “Ferdionica”.

In Opatija, the Croatian Tourism Museum is staging an exhibition of photographs by renowned Croatian photographer Toso Dabac entitled “Opatija Album by Toso Dabac”.

The Museum of Brodsko Posavlje is having an exhibition of items collected in the city of Slavonski Brod and the area of Brodsko Posavlje. The idea behind this exhibition is to raise awareness among local people about the importance of collecting and preserving traditional items of a certain area.

Museum of Koprivnica organises a bicycle tour taking the visitors along an “art route” through the city, visiting points of interest.

Museum of Sibenik will see its experts presenting future projects by live Facebook video.

These are just some of the options for museum hungry visitors on May 18th. Where ever you find yourself in Croatia, make sure to check with local museums about their plans for International Museum Day.

For more on lifestyle, follow TCN's dedicated page.

As Sasa Paparella/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of May, 2020, large European museums such as the Rijksmuseum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna or the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam are losing between €100,000 and €600,000 a week because of the coronavirus pandemic. Croatia's museums are reopening their doors, but the Zagreb earthquake has left traces on those here in the capital...

As museums reopen across Croatia, only three museums in Zagreb opened their doors this week: the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU), the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery and the Typhlological Museum. According to the Ministry of Culture, three more museums are expected to open on Tuesday, May the 5th: the Ethnographic Museum, the Technical Museum and Atelier Meštrović.

The recent Zagreb earthquake: There was no evacuation plan in place for the collections

In the recent Zagreb earthquake, several museums in the capital were badly damaged, and now it appears that there was no plan to evacuate their collections in place at all.

''The museums arrange evacuation of the building with their founders. In this regard, the Ministry of Culture is currently finding a solution for two museums - the Croatian History Museum and the Croatian Sports Museum - whose buildings have been marked in red, meaning it isn't possible for them to continue their operations without firstly thorough renovating the building. In addition to them, the Croatian School Museum also has a red mark on the building,'' reads a statement from the competent ministry, whose jurisdiction includes other museums which suffered damage as a result of the Zagreb earthquake.

The Zagreb earthquake also severely damaged several museums under the jurisdiction of the City of Zagreb: The Archaeological Museum, MUO, and the Croatian Museum of Natural History. Poslovni Dnevnik sent an inquiry to the City of Zagreb, but they're yet to receive an answer as to whether they had a plan in place for where the materials would be temporarily moved.

Most museums of national importance are located in Zagreb

Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek made a decision this week to implement a list of the damages caused by the Zagreb earthquake to museum materials. The damage list will be compiled by museum experts in coordination with the Museum Documentation Centre (MDC).

According to data from the MDC's Register of Museums, Galleries and Collections in the Republic of Croatia, in the City of Zagreb alone, there are 41 museums (which include displaced collections too) containing 3.5 million or 57 percent of all museum objects in Croatia in 615 museum collections.

According to the Museums Act, the deadline for completing the inventory and the entry of museum material and documentation in the Register of Cultural Property of the Republic of Croatia is December the 31st, 2020.

Back in the middle of December 2019, a mere few months before the Zagreb earthquake struck, a conference on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the City of Zagreb in Crisis was organised by the Office for Emergency Management. The presentation then concluded that "the investment funds provided by the museum's founders are insufficient for adequate preventive protection," and that "reconstructions mainly regard cosmetic modifications but not structural reinforcements."

According to data from the MDC website, as much as 40 percent of the museum and documentation materials of Zagreb's museums are still not inventoried, and only nine percent of the total number of museum objects have been digitised. Most museum buildings are historic and not purpose built, and in the 21st century, only the Museum of Contemporary Art has been purpose-built, which already lacked storage space.

Safeguards containing the largest number of items are housed in the basements or attics of (old) buildings in adverse microclimatic conditions, at risk of flood and sewage damage, as well as fire and damage to installations.

Clearly, there will be no speedy return back to normal...

Concerning the other, global problem which is affecting the museum profession, the MDC has published the results of the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO) study entitled: The Impact of COVID-19 on Museums in Europe and the World.

"According to the first results of this survey, which was being conducted until April the 17th, 2020 at 650 museums in 41 countries, it's clear that there will be no rapid return to normal," concluded the study, which included museums from all 27 EU member states and nine Council of Europe member states. Various museums from the US, the Philippines, Malaysia, French Polynesia and Iran also responded.

Most museums (92 percent) in Europe and around the world are closed due to measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection. By closing their doors to visitors, many museums have already experienced, or will feel, a drastic loss of revenue. This is especially true of larger museums, as well as those in tourist zones that have reported a financial loss in the range of up to 80 percent of their normal revenue, which is increasing every week due to the complete blockage of any tourist activities, but also because of the possibility of continued restrictions in the summer.

Some museums will unfortunately close their doors permanently.

This means that 30 percent of museums are losing up to €1,000 a week, 25 percent of museums are losing up to €5,000 a week, 13 percent are losing up to €30,000 a week, and five percent of museums are losing more than €50,000 a week. As touched on previously, large museums, such as the Rijksmuseum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna or the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, are losing between €100,000 and up to €600,000 a week.

Private museums haven't provided any precise numerical data, but since most of their profits come directly from sales, some have already indicated that they lost their entire budget during their closure, and the fear is that the end result of the coronavirus crisis will be the permanent closure of their institutions.

For many of the closed museums, reopening dates haven't yet been solidly determined. Museums who have responded to the survey predict that they may open their doors to visitors no later than September 2020.

When it comes to other sources of revenue, the survey says many museums report that they have already accessed or will be accessing national funding programmes for this crisis situation. These programmes mostly include coverage of wage expenditures and lost income.

Museums from 12 countries report that discussions on crisis funding programmes for culture are ongoing, in eight countries such funds already exist, and museums from 15 countries state that there is currently no crisis funding programme operating in their countries. Such programmes vary from country to country - some applied exclusively to publicly funded institutions and some exclusively to freelance professions. Most museums still haven't needed to lay off staff. About 70 percent of museums report that they have modified their employees' tasks to meet the current needs, and 50 percent of museums said more than 80 percent of their employees are currently working from their homes.

More than 60 percent of museums have increased their online presence.

However, the situation is not the same for staff on part-time contracts, nor is it the same for volunteer programmes that have been completely suspended in most museums, the survey said.

More than 60 percent of museums have increased their online presence since they've been closed, while 13.4 percent have increased their budget with online activities. Most museums use social networks more than they did before, making use of hashtags and presenting individual items to their audience.

Additionally, the number of virtual tours and online exhibitions has increased. Of the museums that responded to the survey, 40 percent have noticed an increased number of online visits since they've been closed to the public. Of that percentage, 41 percent are seeing a weekly increase in visits to their sites by up to 20 percent, and 13 percent of them are seeing an increase of as much as 500 percent a week.

The most popular tools and platforms for the internal communication of museum staff working from home turned out to be Zoom or Skype for conference video calls, and for chat - Microsoft Teams and Whatsapp.

Two-thirds of museums have increased their activities on social networks, almost 80 percent of them use mostly Facebook, and almost 20 percent use Instagram as a platform. A large number of museums are considering increasing their activities in podcasts, live streaming and game creation.

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March 25, 2020 - Bored at home? Watched everything on Netflix already? Take a virtual tour of Croatian museums!

The decision of the National Civil Protection Headquarters suspended all activities that were not necessary for the normal functioning of the community. Among them are numerous cultural institutions and events... and that is exactly why now is the time to take advantage of all the benefits you can find online. 

The Museum of Arts and Crafts announced that it has been temporarily closed to the public until further notice, and is moving its activities to online platforms. Unfortunately, due to the Zagreb earthquake, the Museum suffered severe damage. Fortunately, you can still take a virtual tour of it here. 

But the Museum of Arts and Crafts is not the only one taking advantage of all the benefits of the modern world. 

Thus, a look at the museums in Croatia you can visit virtually during the corona crisis, courtesy of HRTurizam:

Nikola Tesla Technical Museum in Zagreb, modeled on existing large scientific and technical museums in the world, as a specialized museum of technology - HERE

Archaeological Museum in Zagreb - most of the monuments are from places belonging to the Croatian historical area, but there is also the Egyptian Collection, as well as a considerable part of the Numismatic Collection material, of foreign origin and several significant collections of Greek and Roman monuments - HERE

Water Supply Museum - walk through the museum and learn about the history of the Zagreb water supply system in a fun way - HERE

Museum of Ancient Glass in Zadar - the museum is archeological but specialized with its exhibit and represents a unique collection of over 5000 different ancient glass objects - HERE

Zadar Archaeological Museum - several departments: Prehistoric, Ancient, Medieval Archeology, New Age, Underwater Archeological Research, Pedagogical and Andragogical Activity, Conservation and Restoration, Library and others, and Museum of Nin Antiquities - HERE

Museum of Vučedol Culture Vukovar - find out why Vučedol is one of the most important archeological sites in Europe - HERE

Pregrad City Museum and Library - a permanent exhibition consisting of three collections: the Numismatic Collection, the Mining and Geology Collection, and the Thierry Pharmacy Collection - HERE

Rector's Palace Cultural and Historical Museum - a permanent exhibition of art paintings, furniture and useful objects from the 16th to the 19th centuries in the ambient salons of the Rector's Palace, the seat of the Government and Prince of the Republic of Dubrovnik, and collections of old Dubrovnik coins, medals, seals, coats of arms and weapons - HERE

Trakošćan Castle - today one of the few objects in Croatia with its own heritage, historically closely related to the architectural framework and the life of its owners - HERE

Rupe Ethnographic Museum - the permanent exhibition shows the storage of grain and presents the traditional economy and rural architecture of the Dubrovnik area with festive costumes - HERE

Zagreb Typhlological Museum - exhibition - "Unspoiled Nature: Island of Rava" - the idea of ​​displaying parts of untouched nature is driven by the desire to present and display the still preserved, natural gems of our country in a peculiar, multi-sensory way, just like the island of Rava - HERE

Archaeological Museum of Istria - today, it is organized into the Archaeological Department, the Documentation Department, the Library Department, the Education Department and the Conservation and Restoration Department. The museum also has collections in the amphitheater of Pula, which it also cares for, then in the temple of Augustus and the Franciscan monastery and Nesactium 

The Museum Gallery of the Sacred Heart - HERE

Amphitheater Gallery - HERE

The Underground Amphitheater - HERE

Gallery C8 - HERE

Museum of Blessed Aloysius Stepinac - Archdiocese of Zagreb - presents numerous documents and objects that Cardinal Stepinac used for his life - HERE

The Zagreb earthquake unfortunately severely damaged the Zagreb Cathedral - HERE

Mimara Museum - with the primary role of safeguarding the artistic heritage, the mission of the museum is to communicate to the visitor rich and layered artistic, historical and civilizational content that can be decoded from particular artworks or groups of works of art - HERE

Museum of the Trilj Region - explores, preserves and documents the cultural heritage of the Trilj area, primarily archeological, then ethnographic and cultural-historical - HERE

Museum of Krapina Neanderthals (Flash player required) - collects, preserves, expertly processes and presents geological, paleontological and archeological material - HERE

Zagreb City Museum (Flash player required) - A permanent exhibition portrays the city in all its aspects, from political, ecclesiastical, historical and economic to architectural-urbanistic, cultural-historical, entertaining and every day - HERE

Sinjska Alka Museum - the exhibition includes many uniforms, equipment used in the Sinj Alka, as well as the Alka statutes. A special attraction of the exhibit is the display of a life-size Alkar procession - HERE

Croatian History Museum - includes almost 300,000 museum objects organized into sixteen museum collections - HERE

This is only part of the offer in Croatia, but it will undoubtedly make the time at home pass more quickly. 

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