Museum

The building of the Olympic Committee of Serbia in Belgrade, 5 Generala Vasića Street, houses the Olympic Museum conceptualised to depict the development of the modern Olympic movement in Serbia and the world.
Unique exhibit collections are divided spatially and conceptually in three wholes. The first traces the history of the Olympic movement more than a hundred years back symbolically representing it through the official Summer Olympics posters, the second is dedicated to the participation of the Yugoslav athletes in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, and the third gives a chronological overview of the Winter Olympics and the Olympic philately.
Resembling the columns of an ancient Greek temple, the full-size photographs of the founders of the Olympic movement in the world and in Serbia, Baron Pierre de Coubertin and general Svetomir Đukić respectively, placed at the entrance symbolise the keepers and are the first thing visitors of the museum encounter. The Olympic Museum features numerous photographs of the Olympian athletes from former Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro and the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games memorabilia. Also displayed are the architectural projects for an Olympic stadium made during Belgrade’s 1936 Games candidature, the first statute of the Olympic Committee, numerous programmes and other archival documents.
The majority of exhibits displayed in the Olympic Museum are owned by the Museum of Physical Culture of Serbia and were consigned to the OCS (former Yugoslav Olympic Committee and Olympic Committee of Serbia and Montenegro) to be exhibited for an indefinite period of time. Thanks to that rich collection, amassed year after year by efforts of the professors of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in Belgrade, today survives an original bronze medal from the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896 which adorns the premises of the Olympic Museum in Belgrade. Amongst the exhibits, one can find the medals from Munich, Seoul and Moscow, Olympic torches, badges, medals, decorations, kerchiefs, cups, statues and statuettes, diplomas; while amongst the most striking objects in the so-called “winter” room are a 1920 two-men bobsled with brakes, legacy of the Mozer family, skis with bindings and skiing boots used between the First and the Second World War.
The local Olympic legacy increases over time. The Olympic Committee received the gifts of the Olympic Games medals from athletes Ivan Gubijan and Franjo Mihalić, wrestler Branko Martinović and legacies from Milan Ercegan, Ante Lambaša and others.
The Olympic Museum was officially opened for the public in May 2001 by the IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
The authors of the permanent exhibition are Vanja Petrović, former curator of the Museum of Physical Culture and Đorđe Perišić, former Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee.