By: Jasmina Trajkov, museum advisor
At a ceremony held on October 3, 2025 at the “Hil” hotel in Jagodina, Mr. Predrag Cuki Antić, a prominent businessman from Jagodina, who lives and works in Belgrade, handed over two valuable collections to the Regional Museum for safekeeping. One consists of 200 postcards from Jagodina from the late 19th century to 1940, and the other is a collection of Jagodina’s postal history with the oldest document dating back to 1837.
Predrag Cuki Antić has been collecting since his boyhood. For 70 years, he has passionately collected material related to his hometown. His collection of postcards of old Jagodina is the most comprehensive collection, containing almost all postcards with Jagodina motifs issued in the period from the inception of this medium to 1940. The Regional Museum itself has been forming its postcard collection for exactly as many years as Mr. Antić and has managed to collect around 120 motifs, but the newly restored collection will significantly enrich not only our Postcard Collection but will also expand our knowledge about the publishers of Jagodina postcards. After all, the postcards themselves are significant both as written and as visual historical sources, especially when it comes to studying the time of the occupation of Jagodina during the First World War.
The cooperation and acquaintance with Mr. Antić began seven years ago when he got in touch with the curator of our Postcard Collection, Jasmina Trajkov. Even then, he hinted at plans to donate his collection to the Museum. As someone whose heart is inextricably linked to his city, Mr. Antić fulfilled his promise. In an emotional speech delivered during the handover of the collection, he expressed his satisfaction that the Regional Museum would take care of the objects in which he had invested almost his entire life.
After signing the contract and officially handing over this valuable gift, the Director of the Museum Dušan Marković presented Mr. Antić with the charter of the Regional Museum Jagodina, which we award to the most deserving donors or associates of our institution.
After museological processing, part of the legacy will be exhibited at the permanent exhibition of the Regional Museum, and as soon as funds are secured, a catalog of these two collections will be published and a large exhibition will be organized.
The Regional Museum Jagodina would like to once again thank its great donor, Mr. Predrag Antić, whose name will be inscribed in capital letters in the permanent memory of our institution as an example of love for his hometown and the noble intention to preserve traces of the past for future generations.
Photos: Milica Miljković
