TALKS HELD ON RETURNING BAUER COLLECTION TO VUKOVAR

( Editorial: --> 3437 ) VUKOVAR, June 24 (Hina) - Renown Croatian collector, donator and museologist Antun Bauer has held talks with Vukovar city officials on attempts to return and again exhibit the Bauer Collection in his birthplace. The collection was hoarded to Serbia during the Serb occupation of the eastern Croatian city. It contained 1,648 works of the most prominent Croatian artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. These works are currently located partly in Belgrade, partly in Novi Sad. The Vukovar Museum says diplomatic efforts are underway which should result in the return of the various parts of the Bauer Collection to the city. Bauer is the founder of town museums in Vukovar and Ilok, which he established with his own donations in 1948 and 1952. He also founded the Museum Documentation Centre in Zagreb. He said he was prepared to donate 300 or so new valuables to the new Bauer gallery, adding to the already valuable Bauer Collection which was opened in Vukovar in 1959. (Hina) mbr jn 281439 MET jun 98