Museum of Applied Arts (Muzej primenjene umetnosti) was established in 1950, as the unique institution of its kind in Serbia, with the purpose of collecting, keeping, studying and exhibiting items of applied arts and crafts of the Serbian people since the establishment of the Serbian medieval state until today.
The Museum also works on the collecting and presenting the works of applied art from all over the world, which arrive to our country through cultural and economic connections.
The first acquisitions of the Museum – a few dozen items received by the restitution of object of cultural value after World War II, were placed, first, in the Princess Ljubica’s Residence, and a year later the Museum was settled at its present premises. Soon after establishing, the Museum acquired a collection of over 3,000 items of applied arts and crafts, collected by well-known painter Ljuba Ivanovic.
This collection had about 3,000 items, including excellent goldsmith products, old manuscripts and printed books, objects carved in wood, carved and painted icons and other objects. The oldest objects in the museum are from the fourth century BC, and they belong to the coin collection (coins from ancient Greece).