The Collector

Veljko Marton was born in Zagreb and, after having completed most of his early education in the former Yugoslavia, went on to study at the University of Miami after having completed his Diploma in Economics at the University of Zagreb. An avid sportsman, he competed on the professional tennis circuit for years before parlaying his athletics into a successful business career spanning across North America, Europe, and North Africa. In addition to his museum, Mr. Marton is CEO and Director of Martimex, a multinational importer-retailer of luxury goods. He is fluent in English, French, Italian, German, and his native Croatian.

From an early age Mr. Marton was drawn to the world of art and frequently visited exhibitions and museums at home and abroad while travelling. This acute interest in the applied arts spurred his interest in collecting and he subsequently made his first acquisitions, first in Zagreb and then further afield. His first love was for items of silver, glass, and porcelain, yet in time his area of interest shifted to furniture and then, ultimately, to painting. What first began as a hobby, done occasionally out of pure pleasure, soon evolved into a passion as his acquisitions grew in both number and quality over the years.

A common problem for many serious collectors is how to determine a specific style to follow and thus maintain a cohesive group of holdings. Mr. Marton solved this problem admirably by cultivating his aesthetic sensibility through frequent exhibition and museum visits. He then further developed his eye for recognizing true quality works by reading volumes of subject literature and attending art auctions, in which he gradually began participating. His collecting criteria also grew out of his contacts with many collectors in the country and abroad with whom he often developed long-lasting friendships.

There was one other major factor that would go on to influence the future path of Mr. Marton's collecting, and that is his desire to demonstrate how Croatia belongs to Central European cultural circles, specifically in the area of fine arts and crafts. As such, many works that can be found in the museum are related to Croatia, and sometimes even to the museum’s hometown of Samobor.