MDC RELEASES BOOK ON WAR DAMAGE TO MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

( Editorial: --> 3996 ) ZAGREB, June 28 (Hina) - A book outlining damage to at least a quarter of Croatia's museums and art galleries during the Serbian aggression was launched in Zagreb earlier this week. Of the 204 museums, galleries and museum collections in Croatia, 66 museum buildings were damaged or destroyed during the war. Documents and exhibitions were also damaged or destroyed in 45 museums and collections. The book by the Museum Documentation Centre (MDC) - titled "War Damage to Museums and Galleries in Croatia" - outlines data collected up to now by the war damage registry, which is still to be completed in the recording of damage to private art works and collections. Assistant Culture Minister Branka Sulc said this was the first such document of its kind in Croatia. She recalled that in the circumstances of a "culturocide war" which had then engulfed Croatia, there had been no respect for the conventions of numerous international agreements on protecting cultural heritage in cases of armed conflict. Raymond Weber, director of the Council of Europe's Directorate for Education, Culture and Sport, said the book was a scientific work whose inventory was irreplaceable in the memories of the Croatian people and European nations. (Hina) mbr jn 281204 MET jun 98