Founding and work of the Nikola Spasić Endowment

“By its scale and importance, the Nikola Spasić Endowment is one of the most successful ‘non-profit entrepreneurial achievements’ of its period, for it had diversified activities, a well-adopted system of ‘fruitfulness’ of the principal capital and its investment in the priority development needs of Serbia at the time. This endowment can serve as a model for establishing a contemporary concept of endowment in Serbia as a transitional state with a tendency toward progress through European and world integrations.” (“Messages of Times Past”, History and Tradition of Philanthropy in Serbia in the 19th and 20th Centuries, author Branka Pavlović, 2007).

The Will

By a holograph Will dated 9 February 1912 in Belgrade, the merchant Nikola Spasić (1838–1916), a great Serbian national benefactor, bequeathed his immovable and movable property for the founding of an endowment under his name for the pursuit of general economic aims, and directed his Endowment:

• to purchase the largest bell for the Church of Saint Sava, when it is built, and to present it as his gift (Article 13);
• to build one hospital in Belgrade “for whichever type of disease the sanitary authorities shall indicate, and when it is completed it shall be handed over to the Municipality of Belgrade.” (Article 14);
• to build two hospitals in the interior “where they are most needed, as well as one home for poor and infirm Serbian citizens, built by N. Spasić.” (Article 15);
• to maintain the Church of Saint Tryphon at Topčider Cemetery, which he built during his lifetime, and to hold divine service every year on the feast of Saint Tryphon — his slava — as well as a memorial service for all his deceased (Article 12).

With the express instruction: “but with this, that only the income be expended on the said purposes, and the principal must not be spent, and the immovable property must not be encumbered or sold.” (Article 17).

By Article 22 he appointed the executors of his Will and the members of the Endowment’s Governing Board, namely:

1. Tihomilj – Tića J. Marković, Governor of the National Bank;
2. Ilija D. Marić, merchant;
3. Dr Vojislav – Voja S. Veljković, former Minister of Finance and director of the Vračar Cooperative;
4. Mihailo – Mika I. Dragićević, director of the Prometna Bank;
5. Todor J. Mijajilović, merchant,

whom he directed to: “Carefully maintain the immovable property from the income, and the remainder of the income shall be spent on endowment purposes; all papers shall be sold gradually at a favourable rate, and after deduction of legacies and other expenses from the money obtained, the remainder shall be given to the Fund Administration for fruitfulness.”

The appointed Board “shall administer this my endowment independently and independently of all earthly authorities, and they shall, according to their conscience and discernment, and in keeping with the spirit of the times and needs, determine how much and when shall be spent from the income on which branch of the national economy (Article 18) …. and when a place among the members becomes vacant, the others shall elect another in the place of the one who has died or withdrawn.” (Article 19).

The immovable property of Nikola Spasić which he gave for the founding of the Endowment consisted of five buildings, namely:

1. Kneza Mihaila No. 19.
2. Obilićev venac No. 17.
3. Kneza Mihaila No. 33 and Đure Jakšića No. 1.
4. Kneza Mihaila No. 37 and Vuka Karadžića No. 8.
5. Kneza Mihaila No. 47 (street and courtyard), Nikole Spasića No. 2 and 2a, Kralja Petra No. 18.

House No. 19 was built on a plot of land measuring 1,577 metres. In 1910 Nikola Spasić purchased the house at Kneza Mihailova Street No. 19, which at that time had only a ground floor and one storey facing Kneza Mihailova, and a large courtyard opening onto Obilićev venac No. 17. The house was built around 1875 to the design of Aleksandar Bugarski. The extension project was prepared by Nikola Nestorović around 1910, and in 1913 Nikola Spasić erected on this large complex a new building with a ground floor and two storeys facing Obilićev venac No. 17, connected by side wings toward Kneza Mihaila Street, so that the so-called “Spasić Passage” was obtained, which had gates and was covered by a glass dome.

House No. 33 was built by Nikola Spasić himself in 1889 to the design of architect Kosta A. Jovanović, as a residential-commercial two-storey building on a plot of 1,620 m². The late Nikola Spasić lived in that building. The building itself has been declared a cultural monument and a cultural asset of great importance for the Republic of Serbia (Official Gazette of the SRS, No. 14/79).

House No. 37 was erected as a one-storey building before 1876; the second storey was added before 1889, and in 1961 the third and fourth. It is composed as a corner building on two streets, Kneza Mihailova and Vuka Karadžića.

By his Will of 1912 Nikola Spasić left this house to his nephew Nikola S. Spasić, but later, on 24 August 1915 in Kruševac, as a wartime refugee, admiring the national resistance of our people and the heroic glory of our army, he amended the Will and with that immovable property and the building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 37 and Vuka Karadžića No. 8 founded his endowment under the name Home of the Serbian National Invalids’ Fund Saint George – Nikola Spasić Endowment.

House No. 47 was known under the name “Sloga”; it had a ground floor and one storey, and was built on a parcel of 2,077 metres. Nikola Spasić purchased the building in 1910, and in 1930 the Governing Board demolished the old “Sloga” building and erected a building to the designs of architect Josif Najman, which faces three streets — Kneza Mihaila, Nikole Spasića and Kralja Petra — and has a ground floor, four storeys and an attic.

The movable property, according to the Governing Board’s reports of 1920 and 1922, consisted of:

1. 290 shares of the National Bank, of 500 din. nominal value each, with interest coupon No. 6 and dividend coupon No. 2;
2. 30 shares of the Belgrade Cooperative, of 250 din. nominal value each, with coupon No. 13;
3. 247 shares of the Belgrade Commercial Bank, of 100 din. each, with coupon No. 19;
4. 662 shares of the Prometna Bank, of 100 din. each, with coupon No. 18;
5. 100 shares of the Cooperative for Building Construction, of 100 din. each, with coupon No. 5;
6. 30 shares of the Montenegrin Bank, of 200 crowns nominal value each, with coupon No. 8;
7. 50 shares of the Insurance Company “Srbija”, of 200 din. each;
8. 7 shares of the Leskovac Joint-Stock Savings Bank, of 100 din. each, with coupon No. 10; and
9. 20 tobacco lottery tickets (precisely designated series and numbers), of 10 din. nominal value each.

The actual stock-exchange value was already at that time considerably higher.

Nikola Spasić deposited the Will with the National Bank for safekeeping; during the war the Bank removed all its documentation from Serbia, and in that way the Will was preserved from destruction — fortunately for the common good.

By the Will of 1912, Nikola Spasić left to his wife Naka, in full ownership, his country estate on Topčider Hill with the buildings on it, then all household furnishings, carriages and horses, 24,000.00 dinars annually as a widow’s enjoyment, free use of the stable and shed at Jugovića Street No. 6, free residence in an apartment in his family house at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 33, as well as the income from three further apartments in the same house (“Supplement to the Will” of 4 February 1915), with the proviso that she might exercise this right for life or until remarriage.

To his niece Vidosava and her children he left the property at Jugovića Street No. 6, with the proviso that niece Anka should also use it until her death. To the other relatives he bequeathed insignificant sums of money.

Nikola Spasić died on 28 November 1916 on Corfu.

Work of the Nikola Spasić Endowment

The work of the Nikola Spasić Endowment may be divided into three chronological periods.

The first period is the founding and work until 1959, when the entire property of the Nikola Spasić Endowment was nationalised; the second period is from the nationalisation of the property until 2012; and the third period from 2012 to the present day.

Work of the Nikola Spasić Endowment from founding to nationalisation (1920–1959)

For more than a year and a half after the death of the late Spasić, no one looked after the property. Many premises were requisitioned for military and private needs and were thus exposed to damage and ruin. At the insistence of Dr Mihailo – Mika Popović, former Minister of Finance, the occupation Civil Court for the City of Belgrade appointed as guardians of the entire Spasić estate Dobra S. Petković, a Belgrade attorney, and Dr Milorad Popović, assistant lecturer and later professor at the University of Belgrade. The guardians were installed in office on 21 May 1917.

The guardians performed their duty until 27 April 1920, when the guardianship judge issued a decision ordering that the Administration of the estate of the late Nikola Spasić be handed over for free management to the persons whom the deceased had named in his Will as his executors.

At the first meeting, held on 30 April 1920, the Governing Board was constituted; Tihomilj J. Marković was elected president and Mihailo Dragićević vice-president. The Governing Board then elected an endowment attorney styled “attorney-in-fact”, who performed the duty of manager and was the executive organ, and as his assistant one supervisor or guardian of the endowment property, then an honorary bookkeeper and one caretaker for each building, as well as a technical person for maintaining the central-heating installations and a stoker. In that way, at the first meeting of the Governing Board the entire Administration was formed, whose organisation remained the same, with insignificant changes, in the following years. Therefore 30 April 1920 may rightly be regarded as the starting day of the work of the Nikola Spasić Endowment.

It should be borne in mind that the Endowment did not yet exist in law, because the Will by which it was founded had not been judicially validated.

Mrs Naka Spasić, wife of the late Nikola Spasić, did not contest the Will, for “Spasić’s wish is law for the whole world — how then could it not be for his widow?” — but the other statutory heirs expressed dissatisfaction with what Nikola Spasić had left them, and even expressed an intention to bring an action contesting the Will.

There was an objective danger that litigation might drag on indefinitely, so the executors of the Will — the Governing Board — undertook the difficult and important task of finding a way to satisfy the dissatisfied heirs and avoid any contestation of the Will’s validity.

Already at the second meeting of the Governing Board, held on 8 June 1920, an agreement with the heirs was adopted under which they received larger sums of money than the amounts fixed in the Will, and agreed to recognise the Will of the late Nikola Spasić.

In total, 314,000.00 dinars were paid to the relatives of the late Nikola Spasić, but the Governing Board also assisted them financially later, given that some of them had fallen into great want.

On 6 October 1920 the Ministry of Education approved the agreement reached with the heirs “because all the said persons are the closest relatives of the benefactor Spasić, because they are in a state of want in these difficult circumstances, and because by this procedure the question of the validity of the Will of the late N. Spasić will be swiftly concluded.”

On 25 November 1921 the judge for non-contentious matters issued the distribution decision under M. No. 13,598, which became enforceable on 31 January 1922.

On the basis of this final distribution decision, on 8 February 1922 the Governing Board submitted a petition to the Endowment Department of the Ministry of Education that, under Article 3 of the Law on Endowments, it “establish the legal existence of this Endowment”.

The decree approving the endowment was signed only on 4 December 1922 and published in No. 4 of the Official Gazette of 4 January 1923:

WE, ALEXANDER I

by the Grace of God and the Will of the People King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

On the proposal of Our Minister of Education, in agreement with the State Council and on the basis of Art. 3 of the Law on Endowments, We approve: that an endowment be founded under the name:

“Nikola Spasić Endowment, for the building of hospitals and a home for poor and infirm Serbian citizens and for general economic purposes.”

Let Our Minister of Education carry out this decree.

4 December 1922. ALEXANDER, m.p.

Belgrade

Minister of Education,

Sv. Pribićević, m.p.

During the First World War all the buildings of the Nikola Spasić Endowment were heavily damaged, partly by bombardment and even more by the use of the premises for various military needs, both during the occupation and for several months after liberation. Repairs were urgent and extensive, and the Governing Board took every measure to honour Nikola Spasić’s instruction that they “carefully maintain the immovable estates”.

The Governing Board decided to demolish the existing “Sloga” building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 47 and to erect a new one with a ground floor, four storeys and an attic, although Nikola Spasić had directed that one storey be added to that building. The Governing Board took this decision on the basis of a report by the Technical Commission, which established that reinforcing the foundations and reconstructing the building would entail great expense, so that it would be more rational to erect a new, considerably taller building. The designs for construction were prepared by Josif Najman, and the building was completed on 1 October 1930.

Because the construction of the building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 47 required large financial resources, only after its completion was the Governing Board able to begin realising the bequests of the late Nikola Spasić.

Respecting the wish of Nikola Spasić, the Nikola Spasić Endowment built:

• the “City Hospital” in Belgrade with 100 beds, the nucleus of the present Clinical Hospital Centre “Zvezdara”. The hospital was completed at the end of 1935 and received its first patients on 1 December 1935.
• the Hospital in Kumanovo with 60 beds, also built in 1935, which received its first patients on 11 August 1935.
• the Home for Infirm Citizens in Knjaževac with 36 beds, completed on 26 May 1935, which received its first residents on 25 July 1935.
• the Hospital in Krupanj, whose construction began in 1934 and, after many postponements owing to the insufficient efficiency of the competent authorities, was completed only in 1938.

The late Nikola Spasić’s wish that his Endowment purchase one largest bell and present it as his gift to the Temple of Saint Sava has not been fulfilled to this day. The reason is that the Endowment collected income from its property until 1958, when its entire property was nationalised. Until the nationalisation of the property the Temple had not been built, and after nationalisation the Endowment simply lacked the means to purchase the largest bell.

Work for the advancement of the national economy represents for his Endowment the principal and lasting task. The Governing Board was given a liberal and broad authorisation, but also a great and difficult task: to “independently and independently of all earthly authorities, according to their conscience and discernment, and in keeping with the spirit of the times, determine how much and when shall be spent from the income on which branch of the national economy”.

From the very beginning of its work the Governing Board adopted principled decisions that every undertaking of the Endowment should clearly bear the marks of the general economic interest, and not of personal benefit.

The Nikola Spasić Endowment pursued general economic aims by:

1. Founding mobile (ambulatory) housekeeping schools. The first eight-week course was held on 23 September 1935 in Topola, and 18 trainees sat the examination at the end and received a certificate and a brooch each. Such courses were held for years throughout Serbia.
2. Establishing variety orchards (apples, pears, apricots and peaches in the Banovina nurseries, Kragujevac – Gruža, Rekovac, Tetovo, Sevojno, Gublje, Gornji Milanovac, Bitola, Prokuplje, Aranđelovac, Kavadar).
3. Planting vineyards with the grape varieties “July Muscat” (Čabski biser), “Golden Chasselas” (plemenka) and “Afus-Ali”.
4. Measures to improve the making of various kinds of cheese and kajmak.
5. Building silo pits for ensiling fodder and manure yards for the proper tending of farmyard manure.
6. Organising courses for rational and progressive beekeeping.
7. Organising courses for the production of early and late vegetables and flowers.
8. Assisting the Serbian Economic Society “Privrednik”.
9. Publishing the “Economic Yearbook of the Nikola Spasić Endowment”.
10. Building the “Spasić Exhibition Pavilion” at the Old Fairground, in which on 11 September 1937 the First Belgrade International Fair was solemnly opened. It was built to the design of Aleksandar Sekulović and is protected within the “Old Fairground” complex, which has been declared a cultural asset (Official Gazette of the City of Belgrade, No. 16/87). The building has a circular plan with a pronounced entrance section of rectangular plan. In addition to classical exhibition rooms the Pavilion included a gallery with special semi-zenithal lighting. The Pavilion’s area was 1,320 m², and the building’s primary purpose is exhibition space. It was built in the Art Deco style, an anthological example of Serbian interwar architecture; it was the first building of the City of Belgrade on the left bank of the Sava River, a kind of forerunner of what would later become New Belgrade. The Pavilion was later extended.

Work of the Nikola Spasić Endowment after the nationalisation of property (1959–2012)

The Governing Board of the Endowment administered the bequeathed property freely and independently, strictly respecting the will of Nikola Spasić expressed in point 20 of the Will “that they first carefully maintain the immovable estates from the income, and only then spend the remainder of the income on endowment purposes”.

However, in 1956 a Decree on the Management of Residential Buildings was enacted, prescribing that building house councils assume all functions of maintenance and repairs of buildings. The Endowment was compelled to hand over to the House Councils all documentation — leases of business premises and apartments, inventory, contracts with caretakers and auxiliary staff.

On the basis of the enacted regulations, from April 1957 the Endowment received only 10% of the gross rents from business space and 4% from apartments.

In 1959 and 1960 the Commission for Nationalisation issued Decisions on Nationalisation N. 916/59 and N. 3814/59, establishing that on 26 December 1958 the complete property of the Endowment — all five buildings in Belgrade (Kneza Mihaila No. 19, Obilićev venac No. 17, Kneza Mihaila No. 33 and Đure Jakšića No. 1, Kneza Mihaila No. 37 and Vuka Karadžića No. 8, Kneza Mihaila No. 47 and Nikole Spasića 2 and 2a, Kralja Petra No. 18), of a total area of about 12,000 m² — was nationalised and became social ownership.

The Endowment was left in ownership a part of apartment No. 17 at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 47 in Belgrade, of 68 m², which it continued to use as its office space.

The Nikola Spasić Endowment opposed the nationalisation of its buildings and in appeals and other legal remedies emphasised that this was endowment property whose income, by the testator’s wish, may be spent exclusively for the common good of the Serbian people — on general economic aims and the building of hospitals.

Nevertheless the property was nationalised, because the Secretariat for Legislation took the position that “all immovable property of the endowment is regarded as the property of civil-law legal persons and that property cannot be placed in any other category”.

It is undisputed that after nationalisation the use of the property of the Nikola Spasić Endowment was contrary to the founder’s will, because the income from it was not used for general economic aims, for building hospitals and homes for the elderly, or for purchasing the largest bell for the Temple of Saint Sava, but for the needs of the City Municipality of Stari Grad.

Despite the seizure by the state of all five buildings and the income from them, the Endowment continued its work and the pursuit of the aims for which it was founded, but on a greatly reduced scale, in accordance with the income it had.

The Endowment purchased and donated seedlings of walnut, hazelnut and plum; visits by top experts to the sites were organised to give advice and monitor the yield (Zaječar, Vlasotince, Preševo, Bujanovac); in cooperation with the Gorani Movement land was afforested; research was supported into the possibility of making foreign cheeses such as “Roquefort” and others. Prizes continued to be awarded to the best breeders of autochthonous livestock breeds at agricultural fairs.

It contributed to the opening of the Ceramics Department of the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade and supported it for many years.

The best physicians and nurses were awarded prizes, their further training and specialisation were financed, and prizes were also given each year to the best students of every year of study at the Faculties of Medicine and Agriculture of the University of Belgrade.

Financial support was given to the Church of the Holy Martyr Tryphon – Nikola Spasić Endowment, and a memorial service was held every year for the late Nikola Spasić and all his deceased.

But only the enactment of the Law Amending the Housing Law (Official Gazette of the RS No. 46 of 29 December 1998), which provided that “rents for apartments belonging to an endowment that has resumed work belong to that endowment”, enabled the Nikola Spasić Endowment to increase its income and thereby to pursue its aims to a considerably greater extent, although the amount of rent in those apartments is still determined by the state.

Thus from 2000 onwards numerous apparatuses and medical equipment were purchased and given as donations to Clinical and Health Centres, as well as Health Centres (Domovi zdravlja) in the Republic of Serbia.

Donations were received by:

Clinical Centre of Serbia, Institute of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Belgrade; Clinical Hospital Centre “Zvezdara”, Centre for Paediatrics “Dr Olga Popović Dedijer”, Centre for Pulmonology, Clinic of Geriatrics, Centre for Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Clinic of Ear, Nose and Throat; Clinical Hospital Centre Zemun, Hospital for Gynaecology and Obstetrics; Clinical Hospital Centre Novi Sad; Clinical Hospital Centre Kragujevac; Obstetrics and Gynaecology Clinic “Narodni front”; Health Centre Knjaževac; Health Centre “Južni Banat Pančevo”; Health Centre Užice; Health Centre “Sveti Luka” Smederevo; Health Centre “Studenica” Kraljevo; Health Centre “Subotica”; Health Centre Valjevo; Health Centre Kladovo; Health Centre Bor; University Children’s Clinic, Belgrade; Institute of Rheumatology, Belgrade; Institute for Health Care of Mother and Child “Dr Vukan Čupić”, New Belgrade; Institute of Neonatology, Belgrade; Health Centre Vlasotince; Health Centre Vladičin Han; Health Centre Kuršumlija; Health Centre Loznica; Health Centre Trgovište; Health Centre Merošina; Health Centre Šabac; Health Centre Bela Palanka; Health Centre “Dr Dobrivoje Ger. Popović”, Aleksandrovac; Health Centre Krupanj; Health Centre Ivanjica; Health Centre Dimitrovgrad; Health Centre Doljevac; Health Centre Lebane; Health Centre “Dr Jovan Ristić”, Babušnica; Health Centre Medveđa; Health Centre Gadžin Han; Health Centre Bosilegrad; Health Centre Bojnik; Health Centre Bor; Society for Care of the Elderly of the Municipality of Stari Grad; Health Centre Dimitrovgrad; Health Centre Bela Palanka; Health Centre Golubac; Health Centre Sokobanja; Health Centre Nova Varoš; Health Centre Surdulica, Organisational Unit Health Centre Surdulica; SOS Children’s Village, Kraljevo; Institute for Emergency Medical Aid Niš; Jovana Stanković, Vlasotince; Health Centre “Dr Veroljub Cakić” Majdanpek; Health Centre Vranje, Organisational Unit General Hospital; Health Centre Šid; Health Centre Žitorađa; Institute for Student Health Care Niš; Special Hospital Ribarska Banja; General Hospital Loznica.

In the period when the Temple of Saint Sava was structurally completed, the Endowment did not have the financial means to purchase the largest bell for the Temple, as the founder had directed in his Will, but in 2011 it donated to the Temple of Saint Sava the sum of 1,000,000.00 dinars for the making and installation of all four icons on the iconostasis in the Church of Saint Prince Lazar in the crypt of the Temple. In this way the Endowment became a major donor and received a Gramata of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, signed by Patriarch Irinej personally.

For 29 years already the Nikola Spasić Endowment has awarded prizes to the best student of every year of study and to a graduating student of the Faculties of Medicine and Agriculture of the University of Belgrade. Plaques and cash prizes are presented to students at a ceremonial award ceremony.

After nationalisation, alongside work on realising the aims set by the founder, the principal task of the Governing Board of the Nikola Spasić Endowment was the protection and restitution of the Endowment’s nationalised property.

At the beginning of the 1990s the Nikola Spasić Endowment requested that apartments in endowment buildings be exempted from apartment privatisation (otkup), because some Belgrade municipalities did not allow privatisation and some did. This was regulated by law only with the enactment of the Law Amending the Housing Law (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 16/97), when the privatisation of apartments in buildings of endowments that had resumed work was prohibited.

The Nikola Spasić Endowment also proposed that privatisation be prohibited not only for apartments but also for business space located in nationalised endowment buildings. This request was adopted, and upon the enactment of the Law on Special Conditions for the Sale of Certain Immovable Property in State Ownership it was provided: “business space that belonged to an endowment, or that is the subject of a legacy, may not be sold under the conditions prescribed by this law.” (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 54/99 of 22 December 1999), and the Law on Special Conditions for the Sale of Certain Immovable Property in State Ownership for Settling the Obligation of the Republic of Serbia on Account of Citizens’ Foreign-Currency Savings from the Loan for Economic Development in the Republic of Serbia (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 25/2000) contains the same provision.

For years the competent authorities rejected the Endowment’s requests that its property be returned, or opposed restitution, as well as the Endowment’s requests for the return of income from business space, which is incomparably greater than rents for apartments.

The City Municipality of Stari Grad sought annulment of Decision of the Ministry of Culture 022-4564/94-03, issued on the basis of the Rulebook on Determining Apartments Exempted from Privatisation in Buildings of Endowments That Could Resume Work (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 29/94), by which property had been returned to the Nikola Spasić Endowment.

The Supreme Court annulled the return of property to the Nikola Spasić Endowment, and later the Ministry of Culture issued a new Decision on Registration of the Endowment, which was entered under serial number 1 in the Register of Endowments, but without restitution of property to the Endowment.

In order to obtain legal standing to participate in proceedings concerning the property of the Nikola Spasić Endowment and rights thereto, the Endowment submitted a request to the City Municipality of Stari Grad to be the holder of the right of use and management of the apartments in the Endowment’s buildings. Several years after the request was submitted, after written consent had been obtained from the Republic Directorate for Property of the RS, the City Municipality of Stari Grad and the Endowment, on 10 December 2009, concluded and court-authenticated an Agreement on Granting Apartments for Use to the Nikola Spasić Endowment, free of charge, for a fixed term of 15 years — namely 63 apartments, of a total area of 5,429 m², located in the Endowment’s buildings at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 19 and Obilićev venac No. 17, Kneza Mihaila Street No. 47 (street and courtyard building), Nikole Spasića 2 and 2a and Kralja Petra No. 18.

The Nikola Spasić Endowment’s request to receive the income from the letting of shops and business space in the Endowment’s buildings was rejected, and the City Municipality of Stari Grad continued to receive the rents.

On several occasions the Nikola Spasić Endowment proposed to the Government of Serbia, the President of Serbia and Parliament that a regulation or decree be enacted prohibiting the sale, alienation or change of use of the nationalised property of all endowments until the enactment of a Law on Restitution. The reason for submitting the proposal for this prohibition was the increasingly frequent seizure of endowment property by powerful individuals and private enterprises. Some endowments formally ceased to exist because of the loss of nationalised property, and some endowment buildings were even demolished so that the new owners could erect new buildings. But despite support for this proposal from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the University of Belgrade and other endowments, the proposed prohibition was not enacted in good time.

Finally, on the proposal of the Nikola Spasić Endowment, the Law on Endowments and Foundations (Official Gazette of the RS 88/2010) included a provision that “the alienation and encumbrance of property that was taken from endowments in the period from 1945 until the enactment of the law regulating the return of seized property and compensation for seized property is prohibited.”

In what follows we shall point to numerous attempts to convert the nationalised property of the Nikola Spasić Endowment into private ownership.

The newly founded Association of War and Military Invalids brought an action before the Supreme Court against the Decision of the Ministry of Culture under which the building “Home of the Serbian Invalids’ Fund – Nikola Spasić Endowment” at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 37 and Vuka Karadžića No. 8 forms part of the Nikola Spasić Endowment, seeking that the building be awarded to them! By judgments of the Supreme Court this claim was dismissed as unfounded (2000).

The building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 33 and Đure Jakšića No. 1, which Nikola Spasić built and in which he lived, and which has otherwise been declared an immovable cultural asset of great importance for the Republic of Serbia, was repeatedly the subject of attempts to pass from state ownership into private hands, of course at a trifling price.

The first time this occurred was in July 2005, when the Fourth Municipal Court in Belgrade valued the building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 33 considerably below market price and scheduled a public auction — sale of the building — on account of a debt of the enterprise “Jugoelektro” to the enterprise IZOLATORNI ZAVOD of Lviv, Ukraine. Although the State of Serbia, and neither the City Municipality of Stari Grad, had sold the building to the enterprise “Jugoelektro”, but had only granted it for use in the capacity of a long-term tenant, the enterprise “Jugoelektro” managed to be unlawfully registered in the Cadastre of Immovable Property as owner of the entire building, without the documentation prescribed by law.

Only after a press conference which the Endowment held at the Media Centre and pointed to the unlawfulness of the entire procedure for sale of the building was the public auction cancelled.

Two years later, in mid-2007, an attempt was made to take over the enterprise “Jugoelektro” by the enterprise “CITY STORY PLUS”, which for that occasion had been founded by Nenad Đorđević and Miomira Hreljec with capital of 500 euros, by delivering a public offer to purchase all the shares of that enterprise. It was obvious that the reason for purchasing the shares was to acquire ownership of the unlawfully registered endowment building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 33 as property of the enterprise “Jugoelektro”.

Again it was the Nikola Spasić Endowment which, by its action and media campaign, succeeded in preventing the seizure of the Endowment’s building.

Since the purchase of shares did not succeed, the enterprise “REZIME”, in the majority ownership of Miomira Hreljec, at the end of that same year 2007, on the basis of a lease with the enterprise “Jugoelektro”, without any building or other necessary permits, adapted part of the Endowment’s building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 33 and turned it into a hotel. They began to advertise “their hotel” and to receive guests.

And because of the slowness and lack of interest of the competent inspection and other state authorities, final decisions on demolition and restoration to the previous condition had still not been enforced even six years after their issuance, as of 2013, and it is not known whether they will ever be carried out.

In 1998 the City Municipality of Stari Grad concluded an agreement on the revitalisation of the so-called Spasić Passage, which stretches from the building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 19 to the building at Obilićev venac Street No. 17. Under that agreement on revitalisation of the passage and construction of the TC Millennium shopping centre, part of the existing shops that had been taken from the Nikola Spasić Endowment were demolished and then restored during the construction of TC Millennium, but for a number of them it is not known whether they remained in state ownership or passed into private hands.

Under that agreement the investors were obliged to restore the existing façade in the passage and on the building at Obilićev venac No. 17, with all the decorative ornaments that had existed on it.

Fifteen years after TC Millennium was built, the shops and apartments have been sold, the old façade has not been restored, and it is not even known where the removed decorative elements of the façade are.

In this period there were several further seizures of endowment property, in that individuals and enterprises somehow managed to become owners of apartments and business space in the buildings, as well as of parts of attics, basements and other premises in the buildings of the Nikola Spasić Endowment. In all those cases the City Municipality of Stari Grad and other competent state authorities did not show the necessary interest and readiness to protect the nationalised endowment property, which was then in state ownership, although that was their legal duty.

Besides these concrete tasks of realising the Endowment’s aims and protecting and recovering its property, the Nikola Spasić Endowment also took part in joint actions aimed at protecting endowment and private property seized by the state on the basis of nationalisation and other regulations.

Work of the Endowment in the period from 2012 – restitution of property

The Law on the Return of Seized Property and Compensation (Official Gazette of the RS Nos. 72/2011, 108/2013, 142/2014 and 88/2015), in force from 6 October 2011, in Article 1 prescribed the conditions, manner and procedure for the return of seized property and compensation for seized property which, on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, was taken from natural persons and certain legal persons and transferred into common people’s, state, social or cooperative ownership.

Article 5, paragraph 1, item 2, provides that the right to return of property or compensation belongs to an endowment from which property was seized, or to its legal successor.

Article 62 provides that from the entry into force of this Law, property that was seized from former owners and that under the provisions of this Law may be returned may not be the subject of alienation, mortgage or pledge until the final conclusion of the proceedings upon a request for return. An act of alienation and encumbrance of property contrary to the provisions of this Article is null and void.

On 2 July 2012 the Endowment submitted a Request for the return of nationalised property to the Agency for Restitution, covering all five residential-commercial buildings at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 19, Obilićev venac No. 17, Kneza Mihaila No. 33 and Đure Jakšića No. 1, Kneza Mihaila No. 37 and Vuka Karadžića No. 8, Kneza Mihaila 47 (street and courtyard building) with entrances from Kralja Petra No. 18, Nikole Spasića No. 2 and 2a.

The request was written on 30 pages and was accompanied by all the documentation necessary for the return of the seized property of the Nikola Spasić Endowment that had been nationalised by Decisions N. 916/59 and N. 111/60.

Because of the size of the property, the Agency divided the proceedings into four separate cases.

1. By Partial Decision No. 46-007199/2012 of 12 December 2012, which became final and enforceable on 3 January 2013, property was returned and ownership of the Nikola Spasić Endowment was established over 50 apartments, of a total area of 4,304 m².
2. By Partial Decision No. 46-007197/2012 of 12 December 2012, which became final and enforceable on 3 January 2013, property was returned and ownership of the Nikola Spasić Endowment was established over 14 apartments, of a total area of 986 m².
3. By Partial Decision No. 46-007198/2012 of 18 May 2015, which became final and enforceable on 15 June 2017, after Judgment of the Administrative Court 9. U. 15798/15 of 15 June 2017 dismissed the action of the City Municipality of Stari Grad contesting the Agency for Restitution’s decision on the return of shops, the Endowment was returned in ownership 6 shops in the building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 33 and Đure Jakšića No. 1, of a total area of 1,028 m².
4. By Partial Decision No. 46-007199/2012 of 27 June 2016, which became final and enforceable on 27 June 2017, the Endowment was returned in ownership 12 shops in the building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 47 (street and courtyard building), with entrances from Kralja Petra No. 18, Nikole Spasića No. 2 and 2a, of a total area of 1,598 m².

By the said decisions the Endowment was returned a total of 7,916 m² in ownership — namely 64 apartments, of a total area of 5,290 m², and 18 shops, of a total area of 2,626 m².

The above apartments were returned in ownership to the Nikola Spasić Endowment, with the proviso that all tenants for an indefinite term in those apartments continue to use the apartments under the Housing Law, under the same conditions and rights as before the return of the apartments into the Endowment’s ownership.

State authorities still determine the amount of rent in those apartments, as they did before the property was returned to the Endowment.

We note that the amount of rent for apartments determined by the state is not a market rent.

Proceedings are under way for the return of seized property in the building at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 37 and Vuka Karadžića No. 8.

Proceedings are under way for the return of seized business space at Kneza Mihaila Street No. 19 and Obilićev venac No. 17, the so-called “Spasić Passage”.

The Nikola Spasić Endowment is the only endowment that has succeeded in having (to date) the greater part of its nationalised property returned in restitution proceedings.

It should be borne in mind that the late Nikola Spasić left his entire property for the founding of the Nikola Spasić Endowment, with the proviso that the donated buildings — shops and apartments — be let, and that from that income the aims set out in his Will be realised.

At the same time he forbade that the buildings he donated and individual apartments and shops be alienated or encumbered in any way, so that by letting them the Endowment might exist and pursue the aims he designated in the Will for an unlimited period of time.

By the return of the above property, and especially of the shops which the Nikola Spasić Endowment lets at market prices, the Endowment was able to increase considerably the amount of donations.

Over the past fifteen years or so the Nikola Spasić Endowment has purchased and donated to health institutions throughout Serbia medical apparatuses and equipment in an amount of over 845,000 euros, including a donation to the Republic Health Insurance Fund in the amount of 12,000,000 dinars (100,000 euros) as aid in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, as well as numerous donations of medical equipment to Clinical Hospital Centre Zvezdara and the Clinic of Surgery “Nikola Spasić” in Belgrade.

In accordance with the Will the Endowment has made several donations for the renovation of the Church of Saint Tryphon at Topčider Cemetery, and it is also financing the complete painting of the Church.

In 2022 the Endowment made a donation to the Serbian Orthodox Church in the amount of 23,459,020 dinars (200,000 euros) for financing representative works on the Temple of Saint Sava on Vračar — namely the three-part archivolt of the portal at the entrance to the Temple.

The Governing Board of the Nikola Spasić Endowment has traditionally, for 29 years already, awarded prizes to the best students of every year of study and to a graduating student of the Faculties of Medicine and Agriculture of the University of Belgrade by presenting a plaque and a cash prize. In total 320 students have been awarded to date, and 7,936,483 dinars have been given in prizes.

Given that the Nikola Spasić Endowment was founded so that with income from its own property — by letting — it may pursue aims of general benefit for the citizens of this state, build hospitals and hand them over to local administrations so that citizens may be treated in them, purchase and donate medical equipment and apparatuses to health institutions, as well as for other aims of general benefit, it is absurd that the state treats the Endowment, in tax terms, as a profit-making business organisation, so that the Endowment is obliged to pay 20% as value-added tax on all donations, to pay property tax on its fixed assets — apartments and shops — at the increased rate applicable to business organisations, although those immovables are the sole source of income intended for making donations, as well as all other taxes and contributions paid by profit-making business organisations, although the Endowment is a humanitarian non-profit organisation.

The Endowment has repeatedly requested of the competent authorities that it be exempted from payment of VAT and other taxes, so that the amount it pays in tax might also be used for making donations.

To date the state has not granted any such request or petition of the Endowment, although it is the practice in many countries of the world that a donor enjoys significant tax relief for donations made.

We believe that, were the request of the Nikola Spasić Endowment to be granted, by aligning this state’s tax policy with the good practice of other states in exempting donations from tax, it would contribute to the founding of new endowments, for the benefit of all citizens of this country.

In Belgrade, January 2024.

Vojin Đekić, Manager