The exhibition features about 100 works by artists from the northern Adriatic port from the period between the two World Wars.
In an article in Novi List daily of Thursday signed by association president Dinko Tamarut, Rijeka's antifascists objected to the part of the exhibition conceived by the head of the Rijeka Museum of Modern Art, Branko Franceschi, which features copies of newspapers, manifestos, and photographs from the period, Romolo Venucci's sculpture "Power of the Will", and a multimedia work by the Problemarket.com arts group called "Stock Exchange of Problems".
The association said the exhibition was an attempt to compromise Rijeka's residents and present them to the world as "fascist clowns".
Franceschi said he was appalled by such assessments, adding that nobody had contacted him about those issues. He said the association had not read the exhibition's catalogue which explained the motives and circumstances of the concept.