Construction of the Ars Aevi Museum Begins

The Ars Aevi collection was founded in 1992 as a cultural response to the destruction and siege of Sarajevo. It was launched through the initiative of Enver "Enja" Hadžiomerspahić, who invited artists from around the world to send their works to the besieged city. This was not humanitarian aid in the conventional sense, but something different: a message that the city, though under siege and fighting for its liberation, was simultaneously fighting for something more enduring.

Major artists responded — Marina Abramović, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis, Joseph Beuys, and dozens of others.

The collection arrived in Sarajevo in 1999 and over time grew to around 150 works of world-class calibre.

The name itself encapsulates everything: Ars Aevi is Latin for "art of the age", yet within its letters lies a partial anagram of Sarajevo — as if the city carries the collection within its very name.

The architectural project bears the signature of Renzo Piano, a Pritzker Prize laureate who submitted the design back in 2005. Alongside the museum, Piano envisioned a pedestrian bridge spanning the Miljacka river nearby — an urban intervention that would transform the museum complex, situated between the National Museum and the Historical Museum, into a beautiful cultural corridor.

Construction became possible thanks to the European Union, which through the EU4Culture programme secured €4.1 million in non-repayable funds, with co-financing from Italy and France. Completion of works is expected in 2028.

What began as a gesture of solidarity towards a besieged city will become a permanent structure. For Sarajevo — a city that has learned to carry both war and the symbols of resistance that grew from it — this is not merely the construction of a museum, but the fulfilment of a long-standing promise to the city and its history.