Presentation of the collection

Why we decided to have this collection?

Historically speaking, we bankers have always paid a lot of attention to the development of art. The concept of Nova Ljubljanska banka supporting art by collecting artworks from established and young contemporary artists is part of the Bank's corporate culture and its social awareness. In our opinion, the environment that stimulates creativity and innovation encourages growth, which adds value to art as well as banking. By decorating our premises with artworks and at the same time supporting talented artists, we are part of the circle of banking institutes holding art collections and cultural monuments of national importance, sometimes even of global importance, for the cultural heritage. Nova Ljubljanska banka with its tradition originating from Mestna hranilnica ljubljanska always entrusted the selection of artworks to experts and over time a large number of quality artworks were collected which are now distributed among the bank’s units all over Slovenia.

Establishment of the collection

In 1999 the Bank, concerned for the Slovenian cultural heritage, founded the Art Collection with the aim to sort and evaluate the existing works of art and gradually improve the collection under expert guidance. The long-term aim of this collection is to become a representative collection of Slovenian artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. During the first ten years, the expert committee presided by Dr Stane Bernik added key artworks from established Slovenian authors, because we believe that the collection is a good investment in art, in Slovenian culture, which is of utmost importance for the Slovenian nation in these times of globalisation. By purchasing artworks from established artists, the Bank supports the development and promotion of Slovenian fine arts. Many works of art purchased by the Bank decades ago, and all of the artworks purchased in recent years, are among the best works of Slovenian fine arts. We are proud that the artworks from our collection attract a lot of attention from experts. We see this as proof that our collection contains significant artworks from Slovenian art, and together with other museums and galleries we play an important role in the collection of the national art thus contributing to the preservation of Slovenia’s cultural heritage.