Belgrade Court To Finally Divide Tito’s Assets

By Bojana Barlovac

Thirty years after his death, a municipal court in Serbia is to start splitting up the late Yugoslav leader’s belongings, from carpets to cars and from fine wines to a horse-drawn chariot.

A court in Belgrade is set to start new round of proceedings aimed at finally dividing up the belongings of Yugoslavia’s late leader, Josip Broz Tito.

Judge Vesna Milojevic says the municipal court is waiting for the children of Tito’s son, Zarko Broz, to be declared official beneficiaries following Zarko’s own death, before starting.

Although all the residences of the former Yugoslav strongman were state-owned, Tito’s widow, Jovanka Broz, and his children have not inherited his personal belongings.

Months after Yugoslavs said farewell to their long-time leader, following his death in 1980, Jovanka Broz was evicted from their residence at Uzicka 15 St in the Dedinje suburb of Belgrade.

Almost all their belongings were confiscated, down to New Year’s greeting cards.

Mrs Broz was placed under house arrest and relocated to a shabby, unheated government-owned house in Belgrade with a leaky roof. Since then she has lived there on a meagre state pension, far from the public eye.

She later got back a few items of furniture, clothes and some jewelry. For the rest, she has been waiting for various commissions to determine and register all the personal belongings of the Broz family.

In 1984, Mrs Broz requested the return of some 1,000 different items. These included her personal belongings held in Uzicka 15 and various other small residences.

The list included gold necklaces, sculptures, paintings, vases, carpets, valuable books, a horse-drawn golden chariot presented by the town of Djakovo, five cars (including a Rolls-Royce, a white Cadillac and a Lincoln), fine wines and the couple’s stamp collection.

The full contents of the list at the court have not been made public yet.