The 12th anniversary since the return of 68 Lipizzan horses, who were seized and taken to Serbia at the start of the war in 1991, was marked at the Lipik horse farm in eastern Croatia, and a proposal was put forward that the Lipizzan horses be protected as the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

A working meeting was held in Lipik, involving officials from the culture ministries of Austria, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Italy and Croatia. A representative of Serbia attended as a guest.

The director of the Lipik horse farm, Damir Jaksic, said that the participants in the meeting had prepared a draft application that would be submitted to UNESCO in March 2020 requesting that the Lipizzan horses be protected as the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Horse-breeding has been consolidated and now the farm has 87 studs and mares which will be evaluated this autumn, Jaksic said, adding that 5,200 visitors had visited the farm last year and 6,200 so far this year. He said that a building permit had been secured and money was being raised to build a new farm.