A new exhibition - the Treasures of the Imperial Residences. Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar’s Village) - was opened at the Historical Museum. This is a large-scale project displaying 526 items from the palace’s permanent exposition, along with selected collections from the museum’s storerooms.
The unique exhibits include designer furniture decorated with precious gemstones, as well as porcelain and glass items, portrait paintings, items from the Amber Room, and a part of the famous Naryshkin Treasure that has never been exhibited in Moscow earlier.
The Naryshkin Treasure is known to be the largest treasure found in St. Petersburg, or even in modern Russia. Its value lies in the dinner tableware sets and unique collections of silverware preserved, with a total of 2,168 items weighing 412 kilograms and valued at 190 mn rubles.
Visitors can see amber items made in the 17th and early 18th centuries related to the history of Peter the Great’s Amber Room, including jewel-boxes, game boards, and personal items. These rare items emerged when Peter the Great acquired German-made panels to be used for the Amber Room for the Prussian king. The original Amber Room was lost during the Great Patriotic War and recreated between 1979 and 2003. However, a unique collection of small amber items collected in the residence over a century and a half of the Amber Room’s existence was evacuated during the Great Patriotic War and preserved in the museum’s collections. At the exhibition, visitors will have a rare opportunity to see masterpieces from this collection that have never been displayed earlier.
The exhibition includes personal items belonging to the Russian emperors, including their costumes, weapons, various accessories, everyday and ceremonial items worn by the monarchs, and their portraits. Visitors to the Historical Museum can also see the collections of porcelain items, as well as of oriental art pieces, and court carriages. The centerpiece of the porcelain collection is the Raphael Dinner Tableware set belonging to Alexander III.
One section of the exhibition features the jewelry items from the 18th to early 20th centuries, including the works of art created by the Carl Fabergé firm, as well as in the workshops of Pavel Ovchinnikov and Ivan Khlebnikov.
The exhibition will run until April 13, 2026.
Galina Semyonova, Editor in Chief of the Russian Bureau, Rough&Polished
