The City Museum of Novi Sad has completed the conservation and restoration of two paintings by Flemish artists in their Foreign Art Collection. The restoration of Queen of Sheba in Front of Solomon by Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642) and Thetis in Volcano’s Smithy from the atelier of Peter Paul Rubens started in 2015.

Both paintings originate from the former collection of Dr. Branko Ilic, a Serbian collector and doctor who donated his entire collection of paintings and objects of applied arts to the city of Novi Sad and the Vojvodina province in 1966. Two years later, the Foreign Art Collection opened to the public. The collection includes 35 paintings by Flemish and Dutch masters who were active in the late 16th to early 18th century.