Canton Sarajevo will temporarily take over the funding of six umbrella cultural institutions of significance for the entire country after their legal status gets finally resolved after nearly two decades, Minister of Culture Kenan Alikadic told Fena News Agency on Sunday.

The six state institutions are Bosnia's National Museum, the History Museum, the Museum of Literature and Theater Arts, the Cinematheque, the Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Art Gallery, while the cantonal Ministry of Education will finance the National and University Libraries.

Alikadic recalled that in a letter sent to the Council of Ministers (as the Bosnian government is officially called) cantonal authorities asked for the consent to form a temporary supervisory and management board for all seven institutions, which would receive no fees so that they would control their work.

“In case we do get that consent, we will immediately start implementing the conditions for salaries and compensations of employees of the seven institutions and finally resolve that issue,” Alikadic noted, adding that they plan to increase the productivity of employees in those institutions and meet the needs of all visitors.

He stressed that the Sarajevo Canton currently allocates around 773,000 Bosnian marks (some €400,000) annually for the financing of these institutions and that more than two million Bosnian marks (approx €1 million) will be needed for the complete financing.

However, he warned that the cantonal government still does not have the possibility of permanently resolving the problem of financing of these institutions, because the founding rights are at the state level.