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Croatia

Much has happened in Croatia's world of the medal since the last, XXX FIDEM Congress at Colorado Springs. Let us just list the most important events. In November 2007 a new museum was opened at Pregrada, a town in the region of Hrvatsko Zagorje near Zagreb. The museum currently has two sections, one on the subject of mining and the other consisting of numismatic material given by Zlatko Dragutin Tudjina (1928-2008). Z. Tudjina emigrated to Germany in 1952, where he initiated a series of gold and silver medals commemorating great Croats both past and present. All were struck at the Bavarian State Mint in Munich. Tudjina’s donation was first exhibited at the Pregrada parish hall in September 1995. This is the first permanent exhibition in Croatia devoted solely to medals. An exhibition of the works of the Croatian sculptor and medallist Robert Frangeš-Mihanović (1872-1940) was opened at the former Jesuit College (“The Clovio Court”) in the Upper (Old) Town of Zagreb in 2007. Among the 141 exhibits there were many plaquettes and medals, both reduced and unreduced, in various materials, forming almost the entire sculptor’s medallic oeuvre. The catalogue is by Ive Šimat Banov, professor at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. Another representative monograph, by Davor Vujčić, dedicated to Professor Josip Poljan (b. 1925), was also printed in 2007 in Zagreb. Eminenly a sculptor, Poljan from time to time turns his attention to the art of the medal. In 2009 Davor Vujčić published a book on another local sculptor, Hinko Juhn (1891-1940), who also made good medals. The most recent, Ninth Kerdić Memorial Triennial exhibition of Croatian medals and small sculpture was held in Osijek. It was opened at the Fine Arts Gallery on April 19, 2007. This Ninth Memorial had three sections, one showed the recent production of the thirty-odd Croatian artists of all generations, some of whom are known to the visitors of the FIDEM exhibitions. The second section consisted of medals and small sculptures modelled by 24 students of the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts and were selected by their professor Damir Mataušić – four of them are sending their works to Tampere. The third section was entirely different: it consisted of 45 historical European medals dating from the 15th c. onwards, donated by Zorislav Dragutinović to the Osijek Gallery. Late in 2009 the Croatian Mint (Hrvatski novčarski zavod), now sharing two locations, one in the centre of Zagreb, near the Technical Museum (the former grounds of the Zagreb Fair) and the new one at Kerestinec, not far from the Kerestinec Castle, had its 15th anniversary with an exhibition held from November 12 to December 6 at the «Mimara» Museum. One of the most interesting pieces to be seen on view was the joint Irish and Croatian edition of the silver 15 Euro coin. Its obverse was originally made in 1926 for the Irish Free State by Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962). Meštrović’s model was adapted for a contemporary coin by Damir Mataušić and provided with suitable reverses. The Zagreb Modern Gallery curator Tatijana Gareljić prepared two exhibitions in 2009, showing the work of the forgotten America born Croatian medallist Ivan Jeger (1911-1973), and another one in May presented the most important material from the Mandl Collection. As already reported in the Colorado Springs FIDEM exhibition catalogue, the local authorities of Davor on the Sava, the village where Ivan Kerdić (1881-1953) was born, have decided to found a museum in the Kerdić family house on the main square next to the parish church, which will exhibit some of the great master's works de facto and virtually. In addition a colony will be organized every year, where young artists can make medals and leave them to the museum. Much has been done in the meantime: restoration works have begun in the Kerdić house and the new worshop in the court yard is under roof. The Zagreb Archaeological Museum Numismatic Collection has been considerably enriched by purchase and donation. In 2006 Vjekoslava Kerdić, the daughter of the Croatian medallist and sculptor Ivo Kerdić presented the 35 remaining medals and plaquettes by her father she still owned to the above mentioned collection. In 2009 Vladimir Mataušić (b. 1924), Zagreb’s best engraver after Ivo Kerdić and Teodor Krivak, sent more than a 1000 items to the Archaeological Museum: dies and punches for many medals, plaquettes, tokens and jewellery, as well as struck material. All this material is a vivid testimony of a hard working man’s skill empoyed throughout half a century, but it also shows political, religious, cultural and economic life in Croatia in the second half of the 20th century. Several highly appreciated contemporary Croatian artists, who were also excellent medallists, and present at several FIDEM exhibitions, have died in the meantime: Ante Despot (1919-2007) Ante Starčević (1933–2007) and Dalibor Parać (1921- 2008). Irislav Dolenec (1921-2009), a well known numismatist as a writer and collector has also died. The Zagreb Collection received many valuable gifts from him and purchased even more numismatic material of all sorts in the last thirty-odd years.

medals; plaquettes

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