The estimated market value of the collection today comes out to around 90 thousand euros, mostly due to Jakac’s recent decline in popularity among collectors. “I told him about the artefacts I had, and I told him I have something stolen from your country that belongs to Bosnia.” Popular portraitist goes guerilla I messaged him on Facebook, especially after I had seen a government tabloid call him a Serb-hater, which is absurd.” “So instead I looked for someone on the other side of the river Drina, and found Emir Hadžihafizbegović – an actor my sons are big fans of. Except I did not want them to use this for a media stunt.” “I’d probably get media attention from all the biggest outlets in the country.

“If I wanted to make a big deal out of it, I would have sold it to the government of Serbia or enabled them to return the artwork and present themselves as great peacemakers – and wash their dirty hands from their participation in the war in Bosnia,” Matić explained. The unlikely duo finally handed over the priceless historical artefacts to the museum’s director on November 29 - the day of the principal session in Jajce, and more importantly, Yugoslavia’s main national holiday, Republic Day. Along the way, he enlisted the help of a renowned Bosnian actor, Emir Hadžihafizbegović. In the end, it took him almost 30 years to find the right way to do it. “And Bosniaks suffered the most in that war of aggression.” The various nationalisms from the region tore their country apart,” he emphasises. “For me, the Bosnians were the biggest Yugoslavs.

While he pondered on the right way to return the stolen property to the Jajce museum, thousands became engulfed in a war that took over 100,000 lives in Bosnia alone. “When the bombing of Sarajevo began in 1992 and we watched the gruesome scenes from Bosnia in 19, I told my wife we needed to return this,” he told Euronews. If he had sold the painting to Marković’s friend, the portraits of leaders from fighting for the liberation of oppressed Balkan nations in one war would end up in the hands of those causing the second major war the region had seen within the 20th century. Milošević is known regionally and internationally as the man whose politics triggered the bloody war that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Mira Marković was the spouse of Slobodan Milošević, Serbia’s nationalist leader at the time.

A serbian film worst scenes