Art News

As Europe marks the 20th anniversary of the Soviet collapse, Bulgaria opens museum of socialist art

SOFIA (AP).- Giant statues of Soviet dictators Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin. Paintings of enthusiastic socialist laborers. A huge red star that graced Communist Party headquarters. As Europe marks the 20th anniversary of the Soviet collapse, this nation that’s still shaking off its troubled communist legacy is opening a museum dedicated to the totalitarian past. A debate’s raging on whether the museum romanticizes the Soviet era or teaches new generations about its horrors. Other former communist countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary have long had similar museums; the fact it’s taken Bulgaria this long to open one is a sign of its fraught transition to democracy. Pulled out of cellars and warehouses, more than 100 artworks will be put on display in the museum that opens