Overview
The Museum of Broken Relationships began as a personal question asked by two Zagreb artists after their own relationship ended in 2003: what should we do with the objects that belonged to us together? Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić decided to exhibit them. The first travelling exhibition opened in 2006 and immediately attracted donations — strangers handing over objects with handwritten stories attached, trusting the museum to handle their experiences with care. By 2010, when the permanent museum opened in Zagreb's 18th-century Kulmer Palace in the Gornji Grad district, the collection had grown to encompass donated objects from across Europe and beyond.
The museum's formal recognition came in 2011, when the European Museum Forum awarded it the Kenneth Hudson Award for Europe's most innovative and daring museum. The prize acknowledged what the museum's visitors had already understood: that an institution based on donated personal objects and anonymous stories had found a way to address experiences — grief, loss, the end of love, the complicated aftermath of endings — that most museums avoid entirely. The award placed the Museum of Broken Relationships alongside institutions with permanent collections worth billions and stated, in the language of the museum world, that sincerity and originality count for as much as resources.
The collection itself resists easy description. Objects range from the mundane to the extraordinary: a prosthetic leg donated by a woman whose partner left her while she was recovering from a sports injury; a toaster representing a domestic relationship that outlasted the romance; a garden gnome purchased during a holiday that ended in argument; wedding photographs from a marriage that lasted nine months. Each object sits in its display case with a label carrying the donor's anonymous account — a paragraph of plain prose that refuses sentimentality without denying emotion. The cumulative effect across a museum visit is something between reading a great short story collection and attending a memorial service: you emerge having encountered strangers' lives at their most vulnerable and most human.
Beyond Zagreb, the museum's travelling exhibitions have visited over 60 cities on six continents, assembling new local collections in each destination. The Los Angeles exhibition included donations from Hollywood. The Tokyo collection reflected the particular Japanese culture of objects and endings. The travelling format has made the Museum of Broken Relationships the most internationally distributed contemporary museum concept originating in the former Yugoslavia — an achievement that would have seemed implausible in 2003 when two Zagreb artists were standing in a studio wondering what to do with a toaster.
Collections Highlights
The museum occupies the Kulmer Palace (also known as the Sponza), an 18th-century aristocratic palace on Ćirilometodska street in Zagreb's Gornji Grad. The building's baroque facade and interior courtyard provide a formal, restrained container for the museum's intimate content — the contrast between institutional architecture and deeply personal objects is an intentional part of the curatorial experience. The Gornji Grad location, within walking distance of the funicular top station and the Church of St Mark, situates the museum at the heart of Zagreb's oldest and most architecturally distinctive neighbourhood.
Guided Tours
The Museum of Broken Relationships is significant for several reasons beyond its emotional impact. It represents a new model for museum practice: a collection assembled from public donations rather than acquisitions, curated by the stories attached to objects rather than the objects' monetary or historical value. It proved that a museum focused on universal personal experience rather than elite cultural heritage could earn international critical recognition. And it emerged from Zagreb — demonstrating that genuinely original cultural institutions can come from cities outside the established museum capitals of London, Paris, and New York. For Croatia, the museum has become the country's most internationally recognisable contemporary cultural contribution, more widely known than any gallery collection or music institution the country possesses.
When to Visit
Open daily: Typically 9 AM–10:30 PM in summer, 9 AM–9 PM in winter (check current hours on arrival). Located in the Kulmer Palace on Ćirilometodska street in Gornji Grad — a 2-minute walk from the top of the Uspinjača funicular. Duration: Allow 60–90 minutes minimum; 2 hours if you read every label. Best visited mid-morning or afternoon when light in the Gornji Grad streets is pleasant for walking before or after.
Admission and Costs
Adult entry: ~€5. Reduced entry (students, seniors): ~€3. The museum shop sells the official collection book — highly recommended as a companion to the visit and a lasting record of the objects and stories. Guided options: Zagreb Free Tour and private Zagreb guides can include the museum as part of a broader Gornji Grad walking tour.
The Case for a Guide
The museum is accessible without a guide — the labels are clear and the concept speaks directly to visitors. However, a Zagreb guide who includes the museum in a broader Gornji Grad tour can provide cultural context that enriches the experience.
- The concept's origin story: Understanding that the museum was founded from a real breakup rather than an academic curatorial decision transforms the first room — knowing the founders' story gives the institution a specificity that makes every anonymous donated story feel more resonant
- Zagreb's cultural positioning: A guide can explain why Zagreb — a city of fewer than one million people, far less visited than the Dalmatian coast — produced this particular institution; the city's Central European intellectual tradition and its particular post-Yugoslav cultural moment are part of the answer
- Kenneth Hudson Award significance: The award name (Kenneth Hudson was the founding father of the European museum movement and wrote A Social History of Museums) and what it signifies in European museum culture helps visitors understand why the prize mattered internationally
- The Kulmer Palace context: Knowing the building's 18th-century aristocratic history as a Zagreb noble's residence makes the contrast with the raw personal content of the collection more visible — baroque architecture housing stories of heartbreak is not accidental
Tips for Visitors
Read slowly: The labels are the museum — rush through them and you miss everything. Visit midweek: Weekend queues in peak summer can form at the entrance; Tuesday–Thursday is quieter. Combine with Gornji Grad: The museum sits in the Upper Town district; combine with the Lotrščak Tower, St Mark's Church, and the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery for a full afternoon. Buy the book: The museum's official collection book in the shop includes objects and stories not displayed on the current rotation and makes a genuinely moving souvenir. Check for temporary exhibitions: The museum regularly hosts themed temporary shows alongside the permanent collection — worth checking the programme before your visit.