At the exhibition of paintings marking the 170 years since the establishment of the National Museum, Serbian Culture Minister Ivan Tasovac announced that the building closed for more than a decade will be open in the mandate of the recently formed government of Serbia.

Opening the exhibition entitled "Light in the Darkness of the First World War", Tasovac said that Serbian painters Nadezda Petrovic, Malisa Glisic, Milan Milovanovic and Kosta Milicevic, whose works are among those on exhibit, can stand shoulder to shoulder with the greatest European impressionists.

Sadly, much of the remaining part of the museum collection of 400,000 exhibits from prehistory to modern age that includes both Serbian and World heritage is not available fully to visitors for more than a decade, because of the poor condition of the building located at the Republic Square in the center of Belgrade.

Tasovac said the building will be fully open in the mandate of the new government "not as an achievement, but as consent of the whole society to be a part of Europe, and at the same time follower of its own culture and history."

"It will be an expression of our need to enter periods of continuity, after periods of instability," said Tasovac.

Speaking at the opening of the exhibition in the building, Bojana Boric Breskovic, acting director of the National Museum, said the necessary funds for the construction works are allocated for the next three years.

She said it is of the outmost importance that the optimal way to revitalize and partly reconstruct the museum building has been chosen with the support of experts, while increased funds for it are projected on a three year basis.

"The permanent exhibition was put to safety during the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia, and was since been only partly returned," said Boric Breskovic.

She added that the consequences of the 2003 decision to close the museum to audience have not been overcome to date.