Photo credit (c): STEFAN CIOCAN / AGERPRES ARCHIVES

However, it seems that only few people know about the existence of this art collection in Topalu, although the ‘Dinu and Sevasta Vintila’ Museum came into existence as early as in 1960.

Why Topalu? The one who answered this question for us is M.D. Gheorghe Vintila himself, the one who donated this extremely valuable art collection to the Topalu Commune Hall, in honour of the memory of his parents, Dinu and Sevasta Vintila, who were teachers in this locality where the very first elementary school in rural Romania was built in 1920.

‘People asked me in more than one occasion what was that made me choose Topalu Commune Hall specifically to donate these 228 paintings, sculptures and graphic works that my parents collected for forty years. What was the exact reason making me choose Topalu as the place where I wanted to make my dream to see an art museum existing in the rural Dobrogea become true? Why, since Topalu is so remote, since it is not that a place to be that easy to reach by visitors? Well, I chose Topalu out of sentimental reasons, because here are the roots of my family. My grand-grand-grandparents were born here, in Topalu, as descendants of those who settled here in only God knows what distant ages of our history […] My parents, Dinu and Sevasta Vintila, were among the cultural animators of the commune […]’ explained M.D. Gh. Vintila, in a text published in 1972 in the Tomis Magazine.

Maria Buzatu, director of the Topalu Museum for almost 50 years, told AGERPRES that the house were M.D. Vintila’s parents used to live, the house where, according to his will, became the museum today, currently belongs to the Constanta Art Museum, which institution won a trial started after the fall of the communist regime in 1990 by the former owners of this building, others than the Vintila family.

In the courtyard of the Museum there is also the grave of M.D. Gheorghe Vintila, another of his wishes mentioned in the donation act of the valuable collection.

“I knew M.D. Gheorghe Vintila personally, as he used to come to Topalu every summer […] As soon as he completed elementary school, he moved to Bucharest with his parents. He also had a sister who had graduated from the Faculty of Letters in Bucharest and a brother who died in the war […] Besides the donation to the Topalu Commune Hall, M.D. Vintila also donated 50 other paintings to the Constanta Art Museum […] The donation act was made in 1960, his last wish mentioned in it being to be buried in the courtyard of the Museum in Topalu. However, we couldn’t do that in 1978 during the communist regime because the authorities didn’t allow us. However, after the anti-communist revolution of 1990, we did it, we brought him here,’ said the director of the Topalu Museum.

M.D. Vintila’s passion for collecting art works was also fueled by his being close friend with many famous painters.

Photo credit (c): STEFAN CIOCAN / AGERPRES ARCHIVES

‘M.D. Vintila knew Tonitza, Pallady, Sirato, Dumitrescu, the group of four as they used to be called, and he also knew Oscar Han, who was in fact his best friend and who gave him very many details about paintings and suggested him to start collecting […] This was a great passion of him and, little by little, he started to know a lot about painting,’ said Maria Buzatu.

Unfortunately, there is someone, supposedly an inheritor of M.D. Vintila, who now lives in the USA, who went to trial claiming that the collection should belong to him and also arguing that the paintings are currently kept in improper conditions.

‘The trial has already lasted for five years […] A man claims to be the illegitimate son of M.D. Vintila. From what I know, he claims that he was the result of a love affair that M.D. Vintila had with his maid […] M.D. Vintila made the donation while he was still alive […] The alleged inheritor claims the collection suggesting that we keep it in improper conditions, which is not true,’ said director Maria Buzatu.

According to her, all the works at the Museum are periodically checked by experts.

‘They come and check the state of the works if not every year at least once in two years. A commission also comes and restorers […] We have devices that help us to maintain the right temperature and humidity […] Every time they came the experts decided that everything is ok,’ said the representative of the ‘Dinu and Sevasta Vintila’ Art Museum.

In the beginning, the old house where the Vintila family used to live in Topalu had six chambers, but later the Constanta Art Museum restored the building and made more rooms, so that the 228 works (212 paintings and 16 sculptures) occupy now 13 rooms.

The Museum has video monitoring and anti-theft systems installed and a security firm that watches over it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Moreover, the building is located right next to the headquarters of the Topalu Police. Ever since the establishment of the Museum and until today there hasn’t been not even one single incident when someone tried to steal from the Museum.

As regards the number of visitors, they are not too many, around 200 persons every month, compared with 1,000 persons before 1990. During the summer the entrance ticket costs 10 lei and 5 lei respectively for students. During the autumn, winter and spring, we reduce both our tariffs by half.

Photo credit (c): STEFAN CIOCAN / AGERPRES ARCHIVES

The visitors are mostly students and various people who come to our commune out of various reasons and, sometimes, groups of tourists coming from Constanta, the most recent such group that we had being from the Republic of Moldova.

‘There used to be much many trips organised before 1990 […] Most probably that people don’t even know that this Museum exists today,’ said Maria Buzatu.

A large number of visitors was seen at the Museum in the day of its reopening after being closed for rebuilding over 2006-2008. The treasure was hosted by the Constanta Art Museum in that interval.

The answer of the Museum’s director to the question whether a dignitary or a public person ever came to visit the Museum after 1990 was a clear ‘no’, after which she added that Zoe Ceausescu, the daughter of the former dictator Ceausescu came once before 1990.

Some of the works showed at the ‘Dinu and Sevasta Vintila’ Art Museum in Topalu are: Nicolae Grigorescu — Ciobanas, Flori de nalba; Mircea Demetrescu — Cap de fetita; Stefan Luchian — Femeie cu copil la marginea orasului; Octav Bancila — Tara transilvanean, Peticarul, Flori, Cap de evreu; Theodor Pallady — Nud cu lalele, Natura moarta cu narghilea; Gheorghe Petrascu — Pe malul marii, Peisaj cu case; Nicolae Tonitza — Camp cu maci, Fetita acrobatului; Francisc Sirato — Spoitori, Lalele; Stefan Dimitrescu — bunelul si nepoata, Fetita la pupitru; Camil Ressu — Casa, Taranca cu copil; Lucian Grigorescu — Natura moarta; Aurel Baesu — Cap de taranca; Alexandru Ciucurencu — Femeie in gri; Corneli Baba — Nud; Theodor Aman — Peisaj de tara; Iosif Iser — Joc de copii; Camil Ressu — Gheorghe din Vlaici. AGERPRES