In 1970, Tošo Dabac died and he left his studio and its entire inventory, including negatives, photographs and documents, to his nephew Petar Dabac, who was also a photographer. According to Marina Benažić, Petar Dabac took exemplary care of the materials during the thirty-four years he managed the studio, and it is to his great credit that the materials are so well-preserved. Petar Dabac had his photo gallery in the atelier (later the archives) until the beginning of Croatia’s War of Independence, and forty-seven exhibitions of renowned international and Croatian photographers and a series of workshops were held there during the 1980s.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, it was increasingly difficult to maintain the Tošo Dabac Archive, so that Petar Dabac launched negotiations with the City of Zagreb on the purchase of the collection.