PHOTO: view of the display case in the Armoury Museum containing 10 Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs, among other items

According to Elena Gagarina[1], director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, the Collection of the State Armoury Chamber Museum will be moved to a massive new museum complex located on Red Square in 2024. The new K5 museum – which has been under construction for nearly a decade – will feature a “large Fabergé Hall” to showcase the 10 Imperial Easter Eggs[2] and other Fabergé items from the museum’s collection.

The Moscow Kremlin Museums were founded on 10th March 1806, when Emperor Alexander I (1777-1825) issued a decree on the creation of the Armoury, as a treasury of the Romanov dynasty. It preserves more than 4,000 items related to the life of the imperial, grand-ducal and patriarchal courts.

The creation of a new building to house the Armoury Chamber collection has been under construction in the Middle Trading Rows, which is situated on Red Square, next to the GUM Department Store and across from St. Basil’s Cathedral.

Elena Gagarina notes that the Armoury Chamber’s collection is so large that it is simply impossible to display the museum’s vast collection, most of which is in storage. In addition, she noted that due to the constraints of the museum being within the Kremlin make it difficult to host major exhibitions.

PHOTO: the Moscow Kremlin Museum’s new K5 Museum will be housed in the Middle Trading Rows, situated on Red Square, across from the iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral

She further stressed the fact that it is important that the Kremlin Museum now expands beyond the Kremlin wall, not just because of current space limitations, but also for the museum’s collection to be displayed in a modern museum setting, similar to those in many European cities. The new modern facility will feature an area for receiving visitors, ticket offices, lecture halls, restoration workshops, storage facilities, shops and restaurants. The new venue will allow for temporary expositions and special exhibitions.

It was in 2016 the Moscow Government signed a decree transferring the building of the Middle Trading Rows to the State Kremlin Museum, which will house the bulk of the collection of the Armoury Chamber Museum. Some items, including those related to coronations and state regalia will remain in the original Armoury Museum.

The K5 Museum complex includes the Middle Trading Rows and a new building constructed within the perimeter of the historic building. The new building is completely hidden behind the 19th-century façade, thus preserving the historically established composition of Red Square, included by UNESCO in it’s list of World Heritage Sites.

PHOTO: Elena Gagarina, director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, the Collection of the State Armoury Museum.

The new K5 Museum will include a Fabergé Hall

Of particular interest to visitors to the new K5 Museum will will be a “large Fabergé Hall” which will showcase the Armoury Chamber’s 10 Imperial Easter Eggs and other Fabergé items from the museum’s collection. Each Easter egg will be presented in a separate showcase. Many more items that are associated with the master will be displayed in other glass display showcases.

According to Gagarina, the new museum has plans to host large Fabergé exhibitions, in cooperation with the State Hermitage Museum, the suburban palace museums of St. Petersburg, the Fersman Mineralogical Museum, the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg, and from private collections in Russia.

Over the past decade, the Armoury Chamber’s Fabergé collection has grown, thanks to generosity of gifts made by Russian oligarchs and corporations. In 2020, the museum received as a gift the archive of Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920), which was kept by his great-granddaughter, Tatiana Feodorovna Fabergé (1930-2020). She wanted the vast family archive of documents to be transferred to the Moscow Kremlin Museum.

During her lifetime, Tatiana Fabergé made numerous visits to the Kremlin Museum, and maintained good relations with Tatiana Nikolaevna Muntean, the curator of the Armoury Chamber’s Faberge collection. The circle of people who organize exhibitions and conferences, as well as those who write books and papers about Faberge, is quite small, and everyone knows each other. They communicate on a regular basis, to assess and discuss their research and discoveries.

According to Gagarina, it was Tatiana Fabergé’s with that the Fabergé archive be kept in a state museum, and under no circumstances should it fall into private hands.

The new K5 Museum was scheduled to open in September 2022, however, construction was interrupted by the COVID epidemic, which hit Russia very hard. In addition, the move was further delayed due to problems with getting showcases, which were being made in the UK. The exhibits from the Armoury Chamber Museum are expected to be moved to the new building sometime this year. The new museum is now scheduled to open to visitors by the end of 2024

NOTES:

[1] Elena Yurievna Gagarina [b. 1959] is the daughter of the famous Soviet pilot and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968)

[2] Between 1930 and 1933, 14 imperial eggs left Russia. Many of the eggs were sold to Armand Hammer (president of Occidental Petroleum and a personal friend of Lenin, whose father was founder of the United States Communist Party) and to Emanuel Snowman of the London antique dealers Wartski.

© Paul Gilbert. 28 July 2023