Širola: The Museum of Illusions is the largest chain of private museums in the world

It pays to invest in illusions! This is demonstrated by the success of the Museum of Illusions, founded in 2015 in Zagreb, which was discussed today at a meeting with journalists by the co-founder of the Museum of Illusions and advisor at Metamorfoza Roko Živković and Teo Širola, the director of Metamorfoza, the company that manages the network of Museums of Illusions worldwide. There are 42 of them in 25 countries and on four continents in Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa, and so far, ten million visitors have enjoyed them.

At the end of 2022, they opened their first own museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, directly managed by the Zagreb team, and today they have nine museums in America, which generate the highest revenue. Soon there will be more as Metamorfoza, in addition to the office it is currently opening in Atlanta, although the company’s headquarters will remain in Zagreb, will also open museums in Minneapolis, Denver, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

– We can boast the fact that we are currently the largest chain of private museums in the world, and Metamorfoza is the company behind the brand. By 2026, we plan to have a network of one hundred museums. We continue to expand as Roko and Tomislav Pamuković (the other co-founder of the Museum of Illusions) started, but in a slightly different format as we also have our corporate museums. To achieve all this, we have hired many new people; in Zagreb, we have over 50 people, and in the last year and a half, we have grown more than five times – says Širola.

Hybrid model – franchisees and investors

Živković explained that the company grew step by step, opening franchises in Ljubljana, Vienna, etc., in 2016, and in the next three years, they opened one museum per month with a team of only ten people. The newly renovated Zagreb Museum of Illusions offers the public more than 70 exhibits, some of which have had their world premiere, and all these exhibits, as well as those in other museums of this company, are conceived, designed, and produced in Oroslavlje, where the Museum of Illusions has research, development, and production.

In July 2021, the private equity fund Invera Equity Partners (IEP) invested in Metamorfoza and acquired a majority (65 percent) stake in the company, committing to increase the company’s capital by three million euros.

– It was not easy to protect the brand; there were no franchise lawyers at the time we started to expand – says Živković. Today, the owner of the Museum of Illusions brand is the company Metamorfoza, which is expanding it worldwide. Metamorfoza developed a new business strategy in 2021, and instead of exclusive franchising in foreign markets, they opted for a hybrid model.

– We still franchise, but we decided to build corporate museums, which means we are both franchisors and investors. This is the reason why we have significantly increased the number of employees and raised the level of expertise in the company from architecture, production, marketing, management to finance. We have done insourcing and thus opened fifty jobs in Metamorfoza in Croatia and a number of jobs with partners – he added.

According to Širola, the best business results are achieved by museums in large world cities, which is why this business has great potential. Although they have several new ideas in preparation, they are currently focused on expanding this story, which has shown that the business model is successful but requires a lot of engagement.