On the first floor the craftsmen from Lošinj redecorated the representative great hall with a gallery. Carved symbols of particular crafts can be seen on the balustrade of the gallery. At the beginning of the 20th century, the palace functions as Fritzi Guesthouse from which the palace got its name. After the Second World War the Palace was a home of a Public Institution (later under the name Adult Education Centre of Mali Lošinj) finally to become the seat of the newly founded Lošinj Museum in 2007.
About the permanent exhibition
Two most significant collections from the Art Collections of Mali Lošinj are on display in the Fritzi Palace – The Piperata Collection of Old Masters in the Great Hall on the first floor and the Collection of Croatian Masters of Andro Vid Mihičić on the third floor. Both collections bear the strong stamp of their creators, yet the circumstances these collections grew out of are very different.
The Piperata Collection of Old Masters
The Piperata Collection of Old Masters contains 27 paintings by mostly Italian masters, made in the period from the end of the 16th century (Bassano workshop) to the beginning of the 20th century (Filippo de Pisis) and predominantly from the Baroque period, i.e. 17th and 18th century (Girolamo Forabosco, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri – Il Guercino, Antonio Carneo, Alessandro Magnasco, Francesco Solimena, Francesco Fontebasso). Beside paintings, the collection also consists of three chests and one chest of drawers from the Renaissance and Baroque period.
The collection was acquired by Giuseppe Piperata (Mali Lošinj, 1883 – Sondrio, Valtellina, 1976), a devoted physician and a passionate art lover. Although he started to collect works of art already as a student of medicine in Naples and Vienna, Piperata acquired the largest part of his collection during his service as a physician in Tarvisio in the 1930’s, knowingly browsing antique shops, cellars, and attics in Furlania and Veneto regions.
Political situation after the Second World War sets apart Giuseppe Piperata from his collection – he continues working in Italy while his collection remains in Mali Lošinj. After decades of negotiation, the authorities repurchased the collection in 1971. Over several years, all paintings have been restored to be permanently displayed in the Great Hall of the Fritzi Palace in December 1998, after 45 years-long “Odyssey”.
About the Mihičić Collection
Andro Vid Mihičić’s collection of Croatian artists is composed of about 360 artworks. On permanent display is only a smaller yet the most representative part of the collection (about 50 paintings, drawings and sculptures), collected throughout his life and later gifted in 1988 to his place of birth by Andro Vid Mihičić (Beli, 1896 – Mali Lošinj/Beli, 1992), an art historian and longtime lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb, an art critic and poet.
The collection mostly consists of gifts by the artists themselves – his friends and colleagues. It is an intimate collection, one could say – a collection of “dedications”.
The format of artwork is small, the titles modest, yet the names of the authors are very representative: Emanuel Vidović, Antun Motika, Stojan Aralica, Vjekoslav Parać, Vladimir Filakovac, Ivan Meštrović, Frane Kršinić, Antun Augustinčić, Vanja Radauš, Dujam Penić, Ivo Kerdić, and many others. Sculptures add special value to the collection, as they rarely form part of other collections of similar character. From 1993 to 2005, the collection was exhibited on the ground floor of the Fritzi Palace (the author of the first permanent exhibition was Đuro Vanđura, while the author of the second permanent exhibition was Miroslav Gašparović), and in 2006, after the reconstruction of the palace, was moved to the refurbished hall on the third floor.
Dante Lussin’s Photography Collection
The gallery (“balcony”) of the Great Hall displays a part of Dante Lussin’s Photography Collection – cameras and equipment from the end of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century, while enlarged prints of digitized glass plate negatives show Lošinj motifs, mostly from the interwar period.
In 2010, the collection was bought by the Lošinj Museum from Mario Pfeifer of Monza (Italy), the successor of the family of photographers who worked in Mali Lošinj for over 50 years (1897-1949). The photo studio was opened by Benedikt Lergetporer from Bled, already known in Kranjska (Slovenia) as the pioneer of alpine photography. After his death, he was succeeded by his daughter Romana and son-in-law Dante Lussin, who had crossed the entire Cres-Lošinj Archipelago on foot, by traditional boat pasara or bicycle, in order to find the most gorgeous and interesting motifs for his postcards. After his death in 1937, he was succeeded by his daughter Alice and son-in-law Ervino Pfeifer, who continued his work until 1949, when the entire family moved to Italy.
After more than 60 years of “collecting dust”, this unique family photography collection returned to the island as a precious testament of Lošinj and his inhabitants of the first few decades of the 20th century.
About the Fritzi Gallery
The Fritzi Palace has been hosting exhibitions since it was the seat of the Public Institution, i.e. the Adult Education Centre of Mali Lošinj. Until 1998 they were mostly organized in the Great Hall (Josip Botteri Dini, Josip Baće, and others) and later on in the gallery of the Great Hall (Jože Ciuha, Ivo Šebalj, Marija Ujević Galetović, and others) and on the walls of the corridors and stairways as well. The reconstruction of the third floor and the attic of the Palace during 2005 and 2006 gave Mali Lošinj the opportunity finally to have a proper town gallery.
Consequently, in August 2006 the Fritzi Gallery was solemnly opened on the ground floor by exhibition of paintings and graphics by Dubravka Babić. Since then a great number of exhibitions have been organized there, from art (Povratak I i Povratak II, Anton Horvatović, Massimo Tosello, Zdravko Kopas, Luka Duplančić, Mauro Stipanov, and others) and museum exhibitions (Lošinj Racing Boat and L5 Sailing Boat, Emanuel Vidović in the heritage of Andro Vid Mihičić, Croatian Graphics of the 20th century from Solis Collection), to guest exhibitions (Hydro-archaeological recognizing and explorations of the waters of Vrsar and Poreč Greek-Hellenistic ceramics of the Archaeological Museum in Split) and various events as well (lectures, presentations, parties, etc.). Gallery's Exhibition Program runs throughout the year. The Fritzi Gallery was placed among the reputable galleries in the Republic of Croatia.
WORKING HOURS
