5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections

Faberge. Imperial Easter Egg Laurel Tree. 1911. Photo Faberge Museum.

In private collections, art and jewelry usually go hand in hand: collectors of paintings and sculptures know a lot about the work of jewelers, and lovers of stones know a lot about works of art. They also live side by side in museums opened by collectors. We have collected five of the main ones operating in Russia.

Carl Faberge firm. Brooch. Gold, precious stones. 1900 1903.

1. Faberge Museum, St. Petersburg. 5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections

Despite its youth – it opened only in 2013 – this is probably the most famous private museum in Russia today. Its owner, businessman Viktor Vekselberg, took a long-term lease on the Shuvalov Palace in the center of St. Petersburg to house the collection of works by Faberge and other jewelers who supplied the imperial court. After a major restoration, the central place here was taken by a collection of nine Faberge Easter eggs, bought from the American magnate Malcolm Forbes in a private deal at Sotheby’s for $100 million. Of course, the exhibition is not limited to eggs and decorative and applied art objects of the legendary jeweler, as well as his colleagues in the workshop Fyodor Ruckert, Pavel Ovchinnikov and others. It also contains a huge number of jewelry items (from brooches and rings to precious clutches), cigarette cases, photo frames, watches, figurines and objets de fantaisie (“whimsical objects”) by different artists and periods.

Karl Bolin Company. Presentation snuffbox with the monogram of Emperor Nicholas II. Gold, Silver, Jade, Diamonds. 1908 – 1917.

Imperial Easter Egg Lilies of the Valley. Mikhail Perkhin. 1898. 5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections.

Playing card set. Master Anders Nevalainen. Suede, Silver, Wood, Metal. 1899 1904.

Presentation snuffbox. Gold, diamonds, rock crystal, silver, diamonds, rubies. Henrik Wigstrom.

2. Museum “Collection”, Moscow

Businessman David Yakobashvili has been working towards opening his own museum in the center of the capital for many years. He willingly loaned out his numerous eclectic collections of antiques – musical instruments, paintings and sculptures, decorative and applied arts, furniture, watches and much more – to museums, but he spent almost ten years building his own. Since its opening in 2018, it seems that it has never fully opened up, but you can still get to the show of working jukeboxes or barrel organs by appointment today.

Pendant “Elephant”. Russia, circa 1880. Amethyst, enamel, emeralds, diamond, silver. 5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections.

One of the sections of the museum is dedicated to jewelry and objects made of stone and bone. Here you will find jewelry and accessories from the 18th – early 20th centuries not only by Russian craftsmen (the Bolin company, Sazikov, Ovchinnikov and others), but also by many Western European jewelers. There is no general concept for the collection, but you can feel the passion for elegance and gold. The collection of stone-cutting art is not inferior to the jewelry collection. A hippopotamus made of snow obsidian with diamond eyes, a dancing peasant made of jasper and eosite with sapphire eyes, a crystal eagle – these are just a few of the typical objects that inhabit the four-story mansion on Solyanka.

5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections Nikolay Lebedev. Box with intarsia stone. 1992. Opal, malachite, lapis lazuli, jasper, turquoise, white opal, sugilite, exotic wood. — Nikolay Lebedev. Box with intarsia stone. 1992. Opal, malachite, lapis lazuli, jasper, turquoise, white opal, sugilite, exotic wood.

5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections Strawberry. 20th century. Metal, coral, jade, diamonds, rock crystal, jasper. — Strawberry. 20th century. Metal, coral, jade, diamonds, rock crystal, jasper.

Strawberry. Second half of the 20th century. Jade, diamond, rock crystal, gold, enamel.

Bowl with removable flower decoration. Germany, Idar Oberstein. 20th century. Wild, Manfred. Rose quartz, rock crystal, rubies, gold.

5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections Composition “Underwater World”. South America. XX century. Quispe Aparicio, Luis Alberto. Opal, rubies, granite, gold. — Composition “Underwater World”. South America. XX century. Quispe Aparicio, Luis Alberto. Opal, rubies, granite, gold.

3. Mineralogical Museum “Planet”, Yekaterinburg

The museum opened in January 2021, but most of its exhibits are well known to the local public: one of those who provided his treasures for the exhibition is Vladimir Pelepenko, a Ural enthusiast and collector, who once owned stone museums in Yekaterinburg and Pervouralsk. He has been collecting his collection since Soviet times and has shown about a thousand different objects (minerals, ornamental stones from all over the world, stone and bone products by Ural and international masters) in Russia and abroad. Today, he is one of almost forty donors to the new Planeta Museum, where the Ural passion for stone and minerals has reached cyclopean proportions.

Exhibits of the Mineralogical Museum Planet. Photo Museum Planet.

All the items in the museum are not gifts, they remain in the collections of their owners, so the exhibits in the six halls here will be changing. The most honorable here is the hall “Ural Minerals” with local unique samples and works of modern stone-cutting masters. Others are dedicated to stones from Russia and the world, and a separate one is dedicated to the modern jewelry art of Ural masters.

5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections Exhibits of the Mineralogical Museum Planet. Photo Museum Planet. 2 — Exhibits of the Mineralogical Museum Planet. Photo Museum Planet.

5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections Exhibits of the Mineralogical Museum Planet. — Exhibits of the Mineralogical Museum Planet.

4. Museum of Stones, Moscow Region

Giant geodes, hundreds of objects and multi-figure compositions made of jade and other stones, ammonites, meteorites, quartz druse from China and other countries are the basis of the private collection of businessman Vladimir Golubev. He began searching for his treasures in the late 1990s in China: according to him, during a business trip he was so impressed by the works of stone-cutters that he could not resist buying them.

And then there was more. The fall in demand for expensive stone items in China itself provoked the Russian collector, and he began buying up huge works all over the country. And after them – rare stones, amethyst and citrine geodes, and a lot of other “related” things. A couple of years ago, the collector decided that his house on Rublyovka in the Moscow region needed a reboot. As the Russian Forbes writes, the imperial style could not withstand the stone load. And the construction of a separate three-story cottage for the collection was not long in coming. Soon the businessman decided not to hide the shine of the stones from prying eyes and open his own museum. They promise to open access this year, and it is free for everyone.

5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections Museum of Stones, Moscow region. — Museum of Stones, Moscow region.

5. Museum of Christian Culture, St. Petersburg

The museum, which has not yet actually started its work, has already managed to open for a short time… – at the turn of 2020-2021, it held its first exhibition of icons and church items, “The Rule of Faith and the Image of Meekness, ” in a new building at 5 Lodygina Lane. It also participated with exhibits in the exhibition “Faberge – Jeweler of the Imperial Court” at the State Hermitage Museum.

The project is led by collector, antiquarian and official owner of the Faberge Museum in Baden-Baden Alexander Ivanov, known in particular for having donated the so-called “Rothschild Egg” by Carl Faberge worth $18.5 million to the Hermitage through Russian President Vladimir Putin. The collector is one of the most active collectors of Faberge items and other rarities. In addition to numerous items and objects from the legendary workshop, his German museum exhibits vintage Cartier jewelry and watches, pre-Columbian gold, and many other works.

5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections On the left are the Holy Equal to the Apostles Emperors Constantine and Helena. — On the left are the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperors Constantine and Helena. Europe, 17th-18th centuries. Marble, high relief. On the right. Holy Emperor Constantine the Great. Italy, 18th century, marble, bust. 5 private Russian museums with jewelry collections.

As the Museum of Christian Culture itself says, it should be fully operational in the summer of 2021. Given the owner’s eclectic tastes, you can expect a lot of glittering stones and gold in his displays and exhibitions.