Written by: Darko Vlahović Photos: Personal Archive / Ivo Pervan
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In the early 1950s, at the time when Tito’s Yugoslavia slowly started opening up to the influence of the West, Jacques Cousteau sailed into the bay of Palmižana on the islet of Sveti Klement in the Paklinski islands with his legendary ship called Calypso.
The famous French explorer of the sea and author of various documentaries came to this Adriatic island because word reached him that Juraj Toto Meneghello, “the greatest grouper fisherman from these lands” and the pioneer of Yugoslavian elite tourism, lived there. Blown away by Palmižana, as well as Toto and his guests – among whom was the British Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ernest Davies, who was taking time off after strenuous talks with Tito to enjoy the island with his family – the legendary Frenchman raved about his stay at Palmižana and introduced this island to the world in the book titled La chasse sous-marine published in 1954 by his associate Gilbert Doukan.
Around ten years after Cousteau’s visit, a young woman from Zagreb called Dagmar Gebauer came to Palmižana. She, on the other hand, arrived at the island to write an article about it, but ended up living there: she fell in love with this fabled Dalmatian bay, but even more so with the charming Toto Meneghello. She soon became his wife…
In the decades that followed, the Meneghellos created a truly exclusive heaven for tourists in the bay, and Dagmar brought her love for art to life by turning Palmižana into a sort of summer retreat for artists and an open-air gallery, amassing a valuable art collection along the way.
Dagmar Meneghello, an art collector, gallerist, donor, and former journalist, is now 80 years old. After having spent more than five decades on Palmižana, she returned to Zagreb a few years ago.
– When I realised I had nothing more to offer to the island, that is, when I saw that I was too old to stay there, I returned – she tells me as we are sitting in her Zagreb apartment, on the ground floor of the most famous house on Tuškanac, where Bela and Miroslav Krleža used to live for decades.
She settled into her new home after a long apartment hunt, but as soon as she came to Gvozd, she knew she was at the right place.
– This apartment is stunning; it simply took my breath away. There are five rooms that are quite large, and I also got a basement and a garage where I can store my paintings – she remarked with a smile.
Villa Rein, a two-story house located at the very end of Krleža’s Gvozd – built in 1928 according to the plans of the architect called Rudolf Lubynski – is a remarkable building in itself, but the ground-floor apartment that opens onto the forest park is particularly impressive. The only problem seems to be the 60+ steps one has to take to get from the street down to the house.
– But I said to myself, if Krleža could live a floor above mine, then I can live here as well – Mrs. Meneghello says, laughing.
The ceilings of her new home feature mouldings of discreet charm, overlooking the finger block parquet flooring, and the spacious room in which we are sitting, as well as three other equally impressive rooms, are filled with works of art from her collection.
The walls are adorned with works by Ivan Lesiak, Anja Ševčik, Željko Jerman, Ivica Malčić and Željko Hegedušić. Statues by seminal Croatian sculptors such as Belizar Bahorić, Raul Goldoni and Milena Lah may be seen at every turn – all this as part of the exhibition called Na rubu1, dedicated to the artists who have been unfairly ignored.
The exhibition was organised in cooperation with the Zagreb Tourist Board as part of the Artupunktura project, and it represents a new practice of occasional opening of a private apartment to art lovers. Dagmar Meneghello is also the pioneer of this approach to events in Croatia.
Life on a secluded island is hard as it is, even for young people, but in addition to her need for better access to healthcare and other privileges of the 21st century, Dagmar was also driven to Zagreb by her desire to complete her artistic mission and find a permanent home for her collection, which contains nearly 4,000 paintings, drawings, sketches, statues, ceramics, and various other works of art by the most influential Croatian artists of the second half of the 20th century. – Over the course of 60 years, the collection has become an integral part of Croatian art, featuring very valuable early works by now renowned and well-known artists. The collection includes the works of 26 academics, five Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts award winners, and many other nationally and internationally renowned artists – she tells us.
In order to keep the collection intact and accessible to the public and with the consent of her family, she brought the collection to the Dagmar Meneghello Foundation.
The collection is her “fourth child”, as she says, emphasising that it is the collector’s responsibility to the artists to display their works.
– If you like an artist, then it’s up to you to introduce them to the public, that is, to show that you are grateful for them, that you appreciate their work, and that you want other people to appreciate it as well – she continues, before moving on to her next point:
– Right now, I’m in the midst of a bustling search for a permanent home for my collection. Despite my preference for Zagreb, the collection almost ended up in Samobor. I wanted to save a lovely manor in Samobor from ruin, a house that has fallen into disrepair after years of unsuccessful attempts at a sale and turn it into a rich museum of contemporary paintings and sculptures by seminal artists. I was up for financial cooperation, but the Municipality of Samobor wasn’t interested… – says Meneghello.
She emphasizes that none of this would have been possible without her late husband Toto Meneghello, of whom she still speaks with utmost respect and affection more than three decades after his death.
– Toto would have celebrated his hundredth birthday this year. I owe that man everything I have. I fell head over heels for him as a young woman, so I was more than willing to leave everything behind!
While living in Zagreb, which began to open up to the world in the late 1950s, she was a successful young journalist. She started working at Studentski list, a student publication, when she was 16, then moved on to work at Večernji list, and made a name for herself in journalistic circles in the years that followed. The whole world was her oyster.
– At the time, Zagreb was experiencing a renaissance. The borders were opened and the whole of Europe flocked to this city. The greatest actors, ballet dancers and world-class singers came to Zagreb; people gathered to listen to jazz… the entire world wanted to witness what life was like behind the Iron Curtain– Meneghello recounts.
Yet she left all of that behind in the name of love.
– You see, young people are so full of enthusiasm that they won’t even hear of certain serious matters. Now I’ve come to understand my mother very well: she warned me that she would hang herself at Ban Jelačić Square if I married Toto and moved to that island for him – she says, laughing.
Aside from falling in love, she discovered the “Mediterranean the way it used to be” there.
– Just getting there was an uphill battle, and there was no electricity, running water or any other amenities; the only light came from gas lanterns used for fishing – she recalls.
She would spend the entire winter bathing in the sea because it was warmer than the water from the tanker, and she often fantasised about running away, back to Zagreb.
– It was just dreadful. Even the lighthouse keepers didn’t have to live like that. You see, they were under the wing of the state to a certain extent, and we were completely on our own, a thorn in the side of the authorities – she says.
When Dagmar came to Palmižana in the mid-sixties, Toto Meneghello’s efforts to run an elite tourist facility on the island did not exactly sit well with the local and national party officials. Originally from Venice, his family acquired 320 hectares of land on Sveti Klement in the early 19th century, accounting for almost three quarters of the island.
In 1906, Toto’s father Eugen started tourism activities in Palmižana: he opened a hotel and a restaurant and planted an arboretum with over a thousand species of plants from all continents, mostly from Mexico and South America.
– Toto’s father Eugen, who used to be a professor at the Dubrovnik Maritime Academy back in the day, received plants from all over the world as gifts from his former students who went on to become master mariners. Meanwhile, the prickly pears in Palmižana have gone wild and grown into trees, some up to seven meters high. We used to wall them off with bricks to protect them, and now we’re the ones who have to brick up to protect ourselves from them – Dagmar laughs.
World War II cut short the lucrative tourism activities in Palmižana, and the new communist regime seized most of the Meneghello family’s land after the war. Eugen was literally driven to his grave by the new communist big guns from Hvar, and Toto – who was barely 22 years old at the time– carried on the family tourist tradition together with his mother, Ina.
In lieu of the exclusive summer resort called the Palmižana Castle, they were granted permission to open a restaurant, i.e. a “tavern”; however, at the same time the communist authorities continued to pressure the family to sell the remaining portion of their property.
– The new dignitaries were under the impression that they could easily force the remaining members of the impoverished family to surrender and withdraw from the devastated and largely confiscated property – says Meneghello.
However, Toto openly stood up to the seemingly omnipotent Vladimir Bakarić and successfully defended his home.
– I believe it was Toto’s extraordinary willpower and strength to fight for his beliefs and oppose the men in power that made me unable to resist him – she emphasises.
Despite various obstacles along the way, tourists started coming back to Palmižana as time passed.
– They came to this little island ready for big adventures. Toto would pick them up with his sailboat, take them diving and fishing, and encourage them to indulge in the finest of the magnificent local cuisine. He made friends with them and they’d end up coming back for years to come – she says.
The evenings were reserved for sophisticated discussions on various topics, and Toto’s mother would play the piano by candlelight.
Along with many other well-known and lesser-known guests, in the fifties and sixties they welcomed Orson Welles, Lavoslav Ružička, Boris Papandopulo, Jagoda Buić and many others, who’d spent their summers in Palmižana. Even the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lujo Tončić-Sorinj, who held the position of Secretary General of the Council of Europe from 1969 to 1974, returned to Palmižana with his family for twenty years.
They all knew that they could count on unforgettable experiences on the island, all thanks to the unforgettable Toto Meneghello.
– Toto took care of the summer residents of Palmižana during the summer, and in the winter, he studied and graduated in forestry and agriculture with the aim of preserving his centuries-old property – says his wife.
He maintained the entire facility almost single-handedly over many years, with just his mother’s help, because private owners were prohibited from employing labour. He spoke five languages, but also fed pigs, sheep and goats. He made his own wine, extracted honey, grew vegetables and fruits, maintained the facilities and the magnificent arboretum. Up until his untimely death in 1985, Toto Meneghello was living his dream in his island paradise.
And when Dagmar first visited Palmižana in the mid-1960s, it did not strike her as an island paradise at all. Quite the contrary.
– Back in 1965, when I saw it for the first time, I didn’t find it beautiful in the slightest.
It was a mess – savage and derelict. It was a diamond in the rough that needed proper attention. I had to get used to working really hard because we weren’t allowed to have any workforce at all in the beginning– she recalls.
However, she adds that this was not even the biggest issue for her: she craved cultural events and art more than anything else in the world.
– All in all, it didn’t take long for me to grasp hard work is far simpler to deal with than a deep longing of the soul.
Dagmar fell in love with painting at an early age. She kept begging her mother to buy her a painting, and somehow she managed to get two replicas – Modigliani’s “Abstract Female Head” and Degas’ “Little Dancer of Fourteen Years”.
– I have no clue how she got her hands on those, but I remember it took her four months to pay them off those because we were barely scraping by at the time.
Dagmar, on the other hand, was not very pleased with the replicas and made up her mind to start buying “real” works of art once she had the money for it.
– I actually hated those replicas; I wanted to have something original. As soon as I started making money as a young journalist, I’d go and buy a few paintings here and there, especially from emerging artists. The first paintings I bought were three beautiful nudes by Ordan Petlevski – she tells us.
However, when she moved to Palmižana, her sole interaction with culture came down to reading books by candlelight. To overcome the cultural isolation of the island, she decided to open her home to young painters, sculptors, and other artists.
– I wanted to fight that isolation with art. One simply cannot stand the reclusion and the constant grind – living like that can drive a person mad. If you feed your body, but not your soul, your life becomes barbaric. That’s what distinguishes us from animals. This need for growth, chasing our illusions, dreams, fantasies… it’s a basic human necessity: it’s what keeps us alive – she says with determination in her voice.
She managed to spread her passion to hundreds of artists and thousands of art lovers who visited Palmižana over the decades.
– Sure enough, we didn’t have many famous visitors in the beginning. Who in their right mind would come to an island without electricity and running water?
So I gathered young people who were just starting out and who could work there – she says.
Many of the unknown Croatian artists of that time now play in the big leagues of our art scene: the list of guests at Palmižana could serve as a “who’s who” of the Croatian art scene of the second half of the 20th century.
The list of artists that visited the island and put on exhibitions includes Boris Bućan, Miroslav Šutej, Kosta Angeli Radovani, Vatroslav Kuliš, Bane Milenković, Ivo Šebalj, Boris Demur, Toni Franović, Nives Kavurić Kurtović, Raul Goldoni, Ivan Lesiak, Kuzma Kovačić, Željko Hegedušić, Belizar Bahorić, Milena Lah, Anja Ševčik, Peruško Bogdanić, Ivica Malčić, Željko Jerman and many, many others.
For Dagmar Meneghello, the most important thing was the “artistic research” she embarked on hand in hand with the artists with whom she shared “a burning passion for art”.
In addition to the stimulating artistic environment, overall freedom and pristine nature, young artists were also eager to come to Palmižana because of the possibility of exhibiting paintings on the walls of the restaurant and statues among the trees of the arboretum, while yachts with hundreds of guests from all over the world docked in the Palmižana bay day after day.
– Needless to say, if you host young artists, you have to be aware of the fact that they’re dead broke. So they came to Palmižana for work, and I’d buy as much of their art as I could. That’s how my collection started to grow – she says in a voice full of emotion.
She goes on to say:
– My children would sometimes get angry with me, but you know, all collectors are kind of kooky. They’re more than willing to endure financial hardships in order to get their hands on something they like later on.
When asked to describe her peculiar art collection, Meneghello answers without hesitation:
– The Mediterranean is the major theme of my collection. It is the cradle of art, with its unique play of light, vivid colours, and a different way of life. The sea bewails the wild blue yonder…
Most of the artwork in her collection was created in Palmižana, and the artists who are most represented are predominantly from Continental Croatia, specifically Zagreb.
– Even abstract artists would end up changing their artistic visions. When they came to the Mediterranean, it would simply flood them with inspiration; they were intoxicated by its lights, colours, fervour… I’ve always had the utmost respect for the individuality of the artist, but I could never bring myself to approve of rigorous geometry for it doesn’t suit either the Mediterranean or me – Meneghello tells us, emphasising that her collection is unique with regard to yet another aspect.
– I know exactly when, where, and how 80 percent of the works from my collection were created – she claims.
Dagmar Meneghello learned about art from the very best. As a very young girl living in Zagreb, she met Tonko Maroević and often went to the legendary Forum gallery at Vlado Bužančić’s.
– I was friends with Tonko for 50 years, and Bužančić and Kruno Prijatelj frequently came to the island and offered me advice, or at the very least
encouraged me by assuring me that what I was doing was good: it helped me feel less isolated – she says.
She points out that she had art colonies on the island with “artists all the way from Canada to China”, put on dozens of exhibitions and “attended thousands of performances”, as well as organised numerous concerts with classical musicians from all over the world thanks to the music enthusiast Dobrila Berković Magdalenić, who founded the international summer music school UPBEAT as president of the Croatian branch of ESTA.
Every year, over 500 young musicians gathered to participate in various workshops led by renowned music teachers and performers from across the world. She was able to convince world-class musicians, whose concerts cost a pretty penny in state capitals all over the world, to perform for free on Hvar and Palmižana.
Aside from that, Meneghello has always been an avid reader.
– Perhaps it’s no coincidence that I ended up in the exact same house where Krleža lived. I used to read his books when I was eighteen, and I still read them now, but from an entirely different perspective. As Borges says, all good books are open to different interpretations – Meneghello chuckles.
However, she believes that she has probably learned the most important artistic and life lessons from the artists themselves.
– Ferdinand Kulmer showed me that, despite having lost everything, one may always find peace in painting. Ivo Šebalj, who did all of his work in a small room, taught me that you can be isolated and still accomplish a lot, and Nives Kavurić Kurtović, who was my best friend and favourite guest at Palmižana, taught me that you can transcend your suffering by turning it into art.
She also loved and admired the late and great Boris Bućan.
– He was a true intellectual. You had to tread carefully when speaking with him. Although I was a few years older than him, he always made me feel like I was a student and he the professor. He really knew everything there was to know – she says.
Therefore, she is more than proud to have put on his last exhibition at Krleža’s Gvozd, as well as the expo of his latest posters in 2022, in addition to the one she set up in Palmižana back in 1983.
– That year, we affixed ten of Bućan’s posters on plywood and placed them all around the forest. People who visited the island, which wasn’t even on the maps, would come across these posters in the forest – she recalls.
These works were considered outstanding posters at the time, and they are today considered high-quality pieces of art.
– You see, some things become clear with time. Time is our harshest critic – emphasises this fascinating woman.
It should not come as a surprise if Dagmar Meneghello goes down in history of Croatian fine arts as one of the few most important, and certainly most peculiar, Croatian art collectors.
Meneghello, on the other hand, is not exactly pleased when the media compares her to the famous American heiress and collector Peggy Guggenheim.
– How can they compare someone so filthy rich that they could buy anything they wanted to someone who had to fight tooth and claw for every painting? – Meneghello wonders aloud.
She occasionally came upon a painting she liked but could not afford to buy.
– Then I would have to step back, and the painting would end up in the hands of someone who didn’t even appreciate it as much as I did, so it always infuriated me when people referred to me as the ‘Croatian Peggy Guggenheim’. Unlike her, I knew every single artist whose work enriched my collection.
We often held art fairs on the island, and many works of art staged at the Palmižana arboretum have vanished forever, destroyed by natural forces.
– I lost a lot of artworks due to my artists’ proclivity to use nature as a studio. Ivana Popović, for example, fashioned miniature female and angel figurines from wire and hung them from pine trees. I told her to take them down, but she insisted that these figurines should acquire their own patina with the aid of some gossamer and pine resin. Of course, they only lasted three years. It was wonderful, but now it’s all ruined – she says.
She has never considered the potential museum worth that these works might have one day, and the concept never really crosses her mind to this day.
– How much is my art collection worth? Just like Palmižana, it doesn’t have a price tag because I don’t intend on selling it. The only objects that need to be valued are those you actually want to sell – believes Dagmar Meneghello, this exceptional woman who was accompanied by unbridled optimism throughout her many adventurous years as an art collector.
– I’ve never been depressed. Had I been depressed, I would never have survived the life I chose. The most important thing for me now is to finally sort out my collection and find a permanent home for it.
