Croatian Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen-Korzinek said on Sunday that the recent adoption of the Cultural Heritage Act in Serbia, which lays claim to old literature from Dubrovnik, was scandalous, calling on Serbia to refrain from usurping Croatia's territory and cultural heritage.

“We will react through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our embassy has already been contacted in this regard,” Obuljen-Korzinek said in an interview with the public broadcaster HTV.

The Cultural Heritage Act, passed by Serbia two weeks ago, says that old literature from Dubrovnik belongs to both Serbian and Croatian culture.

“This is mythomania, this need to usurp Croatian cultural heritage, notably literature from Dubrovnik. That is unacceptable and professionally unfounded. They included in their law provisions according to which the Dubrovnik literature predating 1867 has some sort of dual affiliation, both Croatian and Serbian, which of course is complete nonsense,” Obuljen-Korzinek said.

She said she expected Serbia to do away with such legal provisions and to “stop once and for all laying claim to our territory and our cultural heritage.”