At the end of the 1880s, the sensational fame of Heinrich Schliemann, who excavated the legendary Troy, thundered throughout the world. That Troy, which was considered a fairy tale not only by the great poets I.V. Goethe and G. Byron, but also all European scientists. But the German archaeologist trusted the ancient tale and defeated everyone.


Heinrich Schliemann

In the 19th century, few people believed that Troy really existed and that it could be found. Heinrich Schliemann himself began to dream of Troy as a child, when he saw in the book his father gave him for Christmas “ The World History for children" a picture depicting the death of this glorious city. It depicted Aeneas, the surviving Trojan of the royal family, carrying his father Anchises out of the city and leading his son Ascanius by the hand. Young Schliemann could not, did not want to believe that Troy had perished irrevocably, that nothing remained of such a once mighty city - neither destroyed walls, nor even stones.

Aeneas' flight from Troy
Carl van Loo

Fascinated by the ancient poems of Homer, G. Schliemann decided to find traces of the heroes of the Iliad and Odyssey. He first visited “Troy” in 1869, having with great difficulty received a firman from the Turkish Pasha for excavations. According to this firman, G. Schliemann had to give half (according to other sources - two thirds) of all the things found to the High Porte.

He began excavations in the north-west of Turkey - on the Hissarlik hill, at the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait. Since ancient times, the sea has retreated here by seven kilometers, and one could only guess that there was once a port city here. The plain that lay beneath Hisarlik was infertile, and it was difficult to work on it, especially in conditions of chronic malaria. But nevertheless, an archaeological camp grew here, where G. Schliemann was supplied with tools for excavations from all European cities, and over time they even built a narrow-gauge railway.

Excavations continued from 1871 to 1890, but the most successful season was 1873, when treasures were found, called by G. Schliemann “Priam’s treasure.”

Sophia Schliemann in "Helen's Headdress" from Priam's treasure

Archaeologists different countries They are still working on Gissarlik Hill. But their subsequent excavations showed that G. Schliemann did not find Homeric Troy, but an even more ancient settlement. But then it seemed to the German archaeologist that he was walking along the streets where King Priam had once walked, whose son kidnapped his wife from the Spartan Menelaus - Beautiful Elena.

Beautiful Elena
Antonio Canova

The sensational inscription: “I found Priam’s treasure” - appeared in G. Schliemann’s diary on June 17, 1873. On this day, workers were digging a site near the city wall at the Scaean Gate, where (according to Homer) Andromache said goodbye to Hector before he left to fight Achilles. Early in the morning, between eight and nine o'clock, something flashed in the excavation. Fearing theft from the workers, G. Schliemann released them all, and then collected precious things and took them to his house.

Hector's farewell to Andromache
Anton Losenko

The “Treasure of King Priam” - more than 10,000 items - was in a silver two-handled vessel. In addition to 1000 gold beads, it included neck hryvnias, bracelets, earrings, temple rings, a gold forehead band and two gold tiaras. There was also a massive golden gravy boat (weighing about 600 grams), which was probably intended for ritual sacrifices.

The beads themselves were very diverse in shape: there were small beads, thin tubes, and beads with flattened blades. When the Berlin restorer W. Kukenburg reconstructed the pectoral pectoral, he came up with twenty luxurious threads of the necklace, from the bottom of which 47 gold rods were suspended, and in the center there was one very special one - with thin cuts.

The earrings found in the “Priam’s treasure,” especially the “lobed” ones, were made in the form of a half ring, folded from a series of wires (from 2 to 7), flattened at the end and chained into a needle. Among the rings there are large, massive specimens with thick needles. Such earrings were obviously not put into the ears, and scientists later called these things “temporal rings.” However, how they were worn was unclear: either they were used to thread curls through them, or they were used to decorate a headdress. Later similar finds in ancient burial grounds allowed scientists to assume that the rings were tied to the ears with thin cords.

The most elegant earrings have the shape of a basket, to which thin chains with stylized figures of the goddess hanging on them are attached at the bottom. The work of ancient jewelers was simply amazing. In the best-preserved items, the body of the earring was soldered from a number of thin wires, and the top was decorated with rosettes, graining and filigree.

When G. Schliemann showed the Trojan gold to the best English jeweler, he noted that such things could only be made with the help of a magnifying glass. Later, dozens of mysterious rock crystal “lenses” were found in the last treasure, and among them was one that gave a twofold magnification.

In addition to gold items, bones of sheep and bulls, goats and cows, pigs and horses, deer and hares, as well as grains, peas, beans and corn were found in the Trojan treasure. A huge number of tools and axes were made of stone, and none of them were made of copper. Numerous clay vessels were made by hand, and some on a potter's wheel. Some of them stood on three legs, others were shaped like animals.

Among the Trojan finds, Heinrich Schliemann himself valued above all the ritual hammer axes found in 1890. These hammer-axes are among the masterpieces of world art. Their perfection is so great that some scientists doubt that they could have been made in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. All of them are well preserved, only one (made of Afghan lapis lazuli) was damaged, as it was used in antiquity. What specific ritual he participated in has not yet been established.

The beauty of the proportions of these stone axes could not be a consequence of the talent of the craftsmen alone, even if it was exceptional. Behind them there certainly had to be a school with strong traditions.

On two axes (lapis lazuli and jadeite), scientists found traces of gilding that adorned decorative friezes with knobs. These axes could be attributes of a king or queen, who also performed priestly functions.

Of the treasures found during the excavations, G. Schliemann did not give anything to the Porte, but secretly (with the help of F. Calvert) transported everything to Athens. The Sublime Porte considered itself robbed and filed a case against Schliemann for concealing treasures. In 1874, a court was held in Athens, which sentenced the German archaeologist to pay a fine, however, very moderate for those times. Subsequently, G. Schliemann's relations with the Turks improved, and he returned to Troy several more times.

However, the fate of the treasures remained unresolved. Heinrich Schliemann wanted to give them to his beloved Hellas, but the Greek parliament did not accept his gift. Then he began to offer his finds to various museums in Europe: the British National Museum, the Louvre, the Hermitage and others.

Hermitage

Convincing the French authorities to buy the treasure of Troy from him, G. Schliemann never tired of repeating that we were talking about unique objects, moreover, of Trojan origin. “The utterance of this one word,” he said, “will immediately make all hearts tremble and will attract millions of visitors to Paris every year.” And yet no one wanted to accept the Trojan treasures, although they included such masterpieces as two tiaras, one of which was made of more than 16,000 links of a gold chain.

The fact was that G. Schliemann was known as a great mystifier who assembled his treasures from things of various origins. The objects he found did not correlate with the archaeological context, some of them did not fit in with others... The description of the circumstances of the discovery of the “Priam’s treasure” even at its very discovery caused bewilderment. So, for example, Sophia Schliemann allegedly witnessed this, but in those days she was in Athens, where she was caring for her sick father. Some even thought that G. Schliemann “hoarded” his finds for several years, and when he decided that he would not find anything else, he announced the treasure.

In the end, in 1881, only Berlin favorably accepted the “treasures of King Priam”. Heinrich Schliemann specifically emphasized that he gave them to the “German people,” and Prussia, in gratitude, awarded him the title of honorary citizen of Berlin. In 1882, the Trojan treasure was transferred to the Berlin Museum of Ancient and Ancient History, and before World War II, W. Unverzagt (director of the museum), foreseeing the possibility of the destruction of priceless monuments, packed them in suitcases, which he kept in a bunker in the Tiergarten area.

Museum of Ancient and Ancient History

Upon the surrender of Berlin, the Trojan items were handed over to the Soviet command, and in June 1945 they were sent to Moscow (259 items, including the Trojan treasure) and Leningrad (414 items made of bronze, clay and copper). True, in the recently published memoirs of Andrei Belokopytov, who removed the Pergamon Altar and the “treasure of Priam” from defeated Berlin, it is said that he discovered the treasures of Troy by accident - in nondescript wooden boxes in the bunker of the anti-aircraft tower of the Berlin Zoo.

In the Soviet Union, the “trophies” from Berlin were kept in extreme secrecy, and only in 1993 the Russian government announced that the treasures of Troy were in Moscow.

Text by Nadezhda Ionina


Sophie Schliemann with jewelry from *Priam's treasure* and her famous archaeologist husband

This semi-detective story took place at the end of the 19th century, when the merchant and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, whose birthday is 195 on January 6, discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Troy during excavations in Turkey. At that time, the events described by Homer were considered mythical, and Troy was considered the fruit of the poet’s imagination. Therefore, the evidence discovered by Schliemann of the reality of artifacts of ancient Greek history created a real sensation in the scientific world. However, most pundits called Schliemann a liar, an adventurer and a charlatan, and the “Priam’s treasure” he found as a forgery.


Heinrich Schliemann

Many facts of Heinrich Schliemann's biography look implausible; many episodes were clearly embellished by him. Thus, Schliemann claimed that he vowed to find Troy at the age of eight, when his father gave him a book with myths about Troy. From the age of 14, the teenager was forced to work in a grocery store. Then he worked in Amsterdam, studied languages, and opened his own business. At 24 he became a representative trading company in Russia. He did business so successfully that by the age of 30 he was already a millionaire. Schliemann founded his own company and began investing in paper production. During Crimean War, when blue uniforms were in great demand, Schliemann became a monopolist in the production of indigo dye, a natural dye. of blue color. In addition, he supplied saltpeter, sulfur and lead to Russia, which also brought considerable income during the war.

Heinrich Schliemann - archaeologist or adventurer?

His first wife was the niece of a wealthy Russian merchant, the daughter of a lawyer, Ekaterina Lyzhina. The wife did not share her husband’s passion for travel and was not interested in his hobbies. In the end, the marriage broke up, while Lyzhina did not give him a divorce, and Schliemann divorced her in absentia, in the USA, where local laws allowed it. Since then, the path to Russia was closed to him, since here he was considered a bigamist.


On the left is Heinrich Schliemann. On the right is the wedding of Sophia Engastromenos and Heinrich Schliemann

Schliemann saw only a Greek woman as his second wife, so he sent letters to all his Greek friends asking them to find him a bride “of typical Greek appearance, black-haired and, if possible, beautiful.” And one was found - it was 17-year-old Sofia Engastromenos.

Excavations on Hisarlik Hill

The archaeologist determined the excavation site based on the text of Homer’s Iliad. However, they talked about Hisarlik Hill as the supposed site of the ancient city even before Schliemann, but it was his search that was crowned with success. Schliemann himself invented the story of how “Priam’s treasure” was found in 1873. According to his version, he and his wife were at an excavation, and when they discovered the treasures, the wife wrapped them in her scarf (there were 8,700 gold items alone!) and took them out secretly from the workers so that they would not plunder the treasure. However, the exact date and exact location of the find were not reported. And later Schliemann took the jewelry out of Turkey, hiding it in vegetable baskets. As it turned out, the archaeologist’s wife was not in Turkey at all at that time, and the famous photograph of Sophia with gold jewelry from the found treasure was taken later, already in Athens. There were no other witnesses to the discovery.

Schliemann's discoveries and the famous photo of his wife

The jewels that Schliemann called “Priam’s treasure” actually belonged to another era - a thousand years before Priam. The treasure turned out to be much older in age than the Mycenaean culture. However, this fact does not detract from the value of the find. There were rumors that the treasure was not complete and was assembled over years of excavations from different layers or, in general, was bought in parts from antique dealers.


Trojan treasures in the Pushkin Museum

Schliemann, indeed, found Troy or some other ancient city, which existed a thousand years before Priam. Nine strata belonging to different eras were discovered on Hisarlik. In a hurry, Schliemann demolished the cultural layers lying above the city of Priam, without studying them in detail, and severely damaged the lower layers, which the scientific world could not forgive him for.

At the Trojan Treasure Exhibition in Bonn

The archaeologist said that he would give the “treasures of Troy” to any country that agrees to found a museum in his name. The Greeks, Americans, Italians and French rejected his proposal, in Russia no one wanted to hear about a bigamist, but in Germany they accepted the Trojan treasure as a gift, but placed it not in the Schliemann Museum of Troy, which was never created, but at the Berlin Museum of Prehistoric and ancient history.

Trojan treasures in the Pushkin Museum


Gold objects from Schliemann's finds at Mycenae

IN modern world still going " Trojan War"for the right to possess "Priam's treasure." In 1945, the treasures were secretly taken from Germany to the USSR, and only in 1993 was this fact officially recognized. According to the law on restitution, the “treasures of Troy” were declared Russian property. At the same time, skeptics still express the opinion that there was no Troy on the Hissarlik hill, and the discovered medieval Ottoman settlement does not give grounds to call it Troy.

Heinrich Schliemann

“The Gold of Troy” - part of the legendary “Priam’s treasure”, which was found by the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann - became a symbol of the dispute over the fate of “trophy art”. How did these treasures get to Russia in the first place?

At the end of May 1873 ( exact date unknown, since the archaeologist in different time called different numbers) German businessman and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found in an excavation deep into the Hissarlik hill in Turkey the famous “Priam’s treasure” - a total of almost nine thousand items. These include jewelry, dishes and ceramics. Among them are two unique gold tiaras with pendants, a gold cup in the shape of a rook, gold earrings and bracelets, silver vases...

Romantic myth

Of course, over several years of excavations at Hisarlik, much more was found, but it was these treasures, which we call today “Priam’s treasure” or “Schliemann’s gold,” that brought fame to Heinrich Schliemann. The romantic archaeologist was sure: irrefutable evidence had finally been found that Homer told the pure truth in his Iliad. He had no doubt that the treasures found were a ransom that the elderly king Priam collected in order to pay Achilles for the body of his murdered son Hector. The Iliad puts it this way:

"...Zlata, having weighed the scales, laid out ten talents,

He took out four dishes and a luminous tripod,

He also took out a magnificent vessel... a great jewel! even that one

The elder did not want to spare: his soul was so burning

To ransom my dear son...

Alas! Blinded by his desire to have "100%" proof that Homer was talking about real events distant past, Schliemann closed his eyes to obvious things. The gold jewelry he found was made in a completely different era. If the Trojan king Priam, who is described in the Iliad, ever lived in the world, then he would have been a thousand years later than scientists dated “Schliemann’s gold.” And yet this does not detract from the merits of Heinrich Schliemann. The so-called "Priam's treasure" became one of the most sensational finds in the history of archaeology.

Schliemann Museum of Troy

Schliemann secretly took the treasures found during excavations from Turkey to Greece. Later, by the way, he paid compensation for this, although by today’s standards it was ridiculous. The archaeologist wanted to perpetuate his name, and therefore decided to donate a priceless collection of Trojan finds, which included the “Priam’s treasure,” to any country that would create a special museum for them and name this museum after him, Schliemann.

But neither the Greeks, nor the Americans, nor the French, nor the Italians accepted these conditions. But in Russia they did not seriously discuss this, since there Schliemann was considered almost a bigamist (he divorced his first wife, Russian Ekaterina Lyzhina, in absentia). But the Germans seemed ready to even accept him into the Academy of Sciences. However, the relationship with the Academy of Sciences fell through; Heinrich Schliemann also did not receive the promised order, because he brought his collection as a gift not to the Kaiser, but, as it was said in his deed of gift, to “the German people.” But he became an honorary citizen of Berlin.

True, the Schliemann Museum of Troy was never created. The Trojan finds were exhibited at the Berlin Museum of Prehistoric and Ancient History. During World War II, they were hidden in one of the anti-aircraft towers, a fortress-like structure built to protect the city from air raids. Hitler ordered the treasure, along with other valuables, to be sent further west to prevent it from falling into the hands of the advancing Soviet troops.

However, the director of the Museum of Primitive and Ancient History, Wilhelm Unverzagt, disobeyed the Fuhrer. When Berlin fell, Unferzagt handed over his valuables to Soviet officers. The box containing the legendary “Priam’s treasure” was loaded onto a truck by one of the captured brigades and taken away. And “Schliemann’s gold” disappeared... for almost half a century. Soviet officials swore that they had never even seen him.

Secret storage room

As it turned out after the start of perestroika, when many secrets of the ancient and recent past began to be revealed, the Trojan valuables were hidden from the whole world all these years in a special storage room-safe of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. By the way, it was possible to enter this secret storage room only from the museum’s tour desk. And none of the visitors who came here (as well as the tour guides) suspected that behind a simple curtain in the corner of the room was hidden a steel door, behind which was the legendary “gold of Troy.” The people who had access to this storage facility could be counted on one hand.

But in 1991, Russian historians Grigory Kozlov and Konstantin Akinsha published in the West documents they discovered almost by accident, proving that valuables were hidden in the Pushkin Museum. And two years later, under pressure from irrefutable facts, first the Russian Minister of Culture, and then President Boris Yeltsin, officially confirmed this. However, this did not mean at all that Russia was going to return Schliemann’s Trojan finds to Berlin. Under the infamous restitution law, they were declared Russian property.

In 1996, the first exhibition of Trojan treasures was held in Moscow, as if “solidifying” Russian claims. The famous collection of Trojan treasures is now divided: the gold is in Moscow, the bronze objects, also found during excavations, are in the St. Petersburg Hermitage, and the ceramics are in Berlin.

Editor: Victoria Zaryanka

Context

Exhibition in Cologne: Kerch crown of Baron Diergardt

The Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne is hosting the exhibition "Europe is Burning. Art from the Migration Period." It presents unique objects, some of which were found at the beginning of the 20th century in Crimea.

As has already been established, the treasure has no relation to the king of Troy, Priam. It dates back to 2400-2300. BC e., that is, it existed a thousand years before Priam.

The treasure itself was in a silver two-handed vessel. It consisted of more than 10,000 items. Most of all it contained gold beads - about 1000. Moreover, the beads were very diverse in shape - small beads, thin tubes, and beads with flattened blades. When the reconstruction of the chest pectoral, consisting of these beads, was carried out, twenty luxurious threads of the necklace were obtained, from the bottom of which 47 gold rods were suspended, and in the center there was one very special one - with thin cuts.

Also in the treasure were earrings, in particular “lobed” earrings, made in the form of a half ring, folded from a series of wires (from 2 to 7), flattened at the end. There were temple rings - quite massive decorations, which, as scientists later suggested, were tied with thin cords to the ears. The treasure also contained elegant earrings in the shape of a basket, to which a figurine of the goddess was attached. Also in the treasure were bracelets, a gold forehead band, two gold tiaras and a massive gold boat-shaped bowl weighing about 600 grams, probably used in ritual sacrifices.

Experts noted that such things could only be made with the help of magnifying devices. Later, dozens of rock crystal lenses were found in the last treasure.

In addition to gold items, bones of sheep, bulls, goats, cows, pigs and horses, deer and hares, as well as grains, peas, and beans were found in the Trojan treasure. A huge number of tools and axes were made of stone, but not a single one was made of copper. Numerous clay vessels were made by hand, and some on a potter's wheel. Some of them stood on three legs, others had the shape of animals. Also in the treasure were ritual hammer axes found in 1890. Their perfection is so great that some scientists doubt that they could have been made in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. All of them were well preserved, only one (made of Afghan lapis lazuli) was damaged, as it was used in ancient times. What specific ritual they participated in has not yet been established.

Story

Nakhodka

Heinrich Schliemann discovered the treasure on May 31, 1873. As Schliemann himself described, he noticed objects made of copper and announced a break for the workers in order to independently dig up the treasure together with his wife. In fact, Schliemann's wife was not present at this event. From under the shaky ancient wall, Schliemann used one knife to unearth various objects of gold and silver. The treasure was located under the dust of millennia and a heavy fortress wall in a kind of stone box.

Schliemann mistakenly mistook the find for the legendary treasures of the Trojan king Priam.

Athens and Berlin

Schliemann feared that such valuable treasures might be confiscated by local Ottoman authorities and would become unavailable for further use. scientific study, and therefore smuggled them to Athens. The Sublime Porte demanded damages of 10,000 francs from Schliemann. Schliemann offered 50,000 francs on the condition that the money would be used to finance archaeological work. Schliemann proposed to the young Greek state to build a museum in Athens at its own expense to display the treasure, provided that during the archaeologist’s lifetime the treasure would remain his property and that he would be given permission to conduct large-scale archaeological excavations in Greece. For political reasons, Greece rejected this offer; for financial and political reasons, museums in London, Paris and Naples also rejected Schliemann's treasure. In the end, Prussia and the German Empire announced their desire to accept the treasure into the Ancient Collection.

Moscow

At the end of World War II in 1945, Professor Wilhelm Unferzagt donated the Priam treasure along with other works ancient art Soviet commandant's office. Priam's treasure was transported to the USSR as trophy art. From that moment on, the fate of Priam's treasure was unknown, and it was considered lost. In the Soviet Union, the “trophies” from Berlin were kept in extreme secrecy, and only in 1993 the Russian government announced that the treasures of Troy were in Moscow. Only on April 16, 1996, 51 years later, Priam’s treasure was exhibited at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The issue of returning valuables to Germany has not been resolved to date.

Theories about the falsification of the treasure by Schliemann

The German writer Uwe Topper in his book “Falsifications of History” suggested that Priam’s treasure was made by order of Schliemann by one of the Athenian jewelers. From his point of view, suspicious is the rather simplified stereotypical style in which gold products are made: Priam's 23-carat drink vessel resembles a 19th-century gravy boat. Another theory of Schliemann's falsification of the treasure claims that all the vessels were simply purchased. The theories were rejected by the vast majority of the scientific world.

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Literature

  • Krish E. G. Treasures of Troy and their history = Elli G. Kriesch. Der Schatz von Troja und seine Geschichte. - Hamburg, Carlsen Verlag GmbH, 1994 / Trans. with him. E. Markovich. - M.: A/O Publishing House "Raduga", 1996. - 240 p. - 15,000 copies.
  • - ISBN 3-551-85020-8; ISBN 5-05-004386-7. Klein L.S. Shadow of stolen gold // Smena: newspaper. - 1990. - No. 236, October 10, 1990

. - P. 4.

  • Links Wikimedia Commons logo Wikimedia Commons has media on the topic

Priam's treasure

Excerpt describing Priam's Treasure
I didn’t know exactly how long I stayed in this amazing world, but when it suddenly disappeared, there was some kind of painfully deep ringing emptiness left inside... It seemed that our “normal” world suddenly lost all its colors, mine was so bright and colorful strange vision. I didn’t want to part with him, I didn’t want it to end... And suddenly I felt so “deprived” that I burst into tears and rushed to complain to everyone I found at that moment about my “irretrievable loss”... My mother, who fortunately That moment she was at home, patiently listened to my confused babble, and made me promise not to share my “extraordinary” news with friends.
Mom said in confusion that this would be our secret for now. I, of course, agreed, but it seemed a little strange, since I was used to openly sharing all my news among my friends, and now for some reason it was suddenly forbidden. Gradually, my strange “adventure” was forgotten, since in childhood every day usually brings something new and unusual. But one day it happened again, and it was repeated almost every time I started reading something.
I was completely immersed in my amazing fairy world, and it seemed to me much more real than all the other, familiar “realities”... And I could not understand with my childish mind why my mother was becoming less and less delighted with my inspired stories...
My poor, kind mother!.. I can only imagine now, after so many years of living, what she must have gone through! I was her third and only child (after my brother and sister who died at birth), who suddenly plunged into something unknown and was not going to come out!.. I am still grateful to her for her boundless patience and effort to understand everything that was happening with me then and all the subsequent “crazy” years of my life. I think that my grandfather helped her a lot then. Just like he helped me. He was always with me, and this is probably why his death became for me the most bitter and irreparable loss of my childhood years.

A burning, unfamiliar pain threw me into a strange and cold world adults, never again giving the opportunity to go back. My fragile, bright, fabulous Child's world broke into thousands of small pieces, which (I somehow knew) I would never be able to completely restore. Of course, I was still a small six-year-old child, with my dreams and fantasies, but at the same time, I already knew for sure that this was not always ours. amazing world It can be so fabulously beautiful, and it turns out that it’s not always safe to exist in it...
I remember how literally a few weeks before that terrible day, my grandfather and I were sitting in the garden and “listening” to the sunset. For some reason, grandfather was quiet and sad, but this sadness was very warm and bright, and even somehow deeply kind... Now I understand that he already knew then that he would be leaving very soon... But, unfortunately, not I knew this.
“Someday, after many, many years... when I’m no longer next to you, you will also look at the sunset, listen to the trees... and maybe sometimes remember your old grandfather,” grandfather’s voice gurgled like a quiet stream. – Life is very dear and beautiful, baby, even if at times it may seem cruel and unfair to you... Whatever happens to you, remember: you have the most important thing - your honor and your human dignity, which no one can have from you take them away, and no one can drop them except you... Keep it, baby, and don’t let anyone break you, and everything else in life can be replenished...
He rocked me like a little child in his dry and always warm arms. And it was so amazingly calm that I was afraid to breathe, so as not to accidentally frighten away this wonderful moment, when the soul warms up and rests, when the whole world seems huge and so extraordinarily kind... when suddenly the meaning of his words dawned on me!!!
I jumped up like a disheveled chicken, choking with indignation, and, as luck would have it, unable to find in my “rebellious” head the words that were so necessary at that moment. It was so offensive and completely unfair!.. Well, why on such a wonderful evening did he suddenly need to start talking about that sad and inevitable thing that (even I already understood) would sooner or later have to happen?! My heart did not want to listen to this and did not want to accept such “horror”. And it was completely natural - after all, all of us, even children, so do not want to admit this sad fact to ourselves that we pretend that it will never happen. Maybe with someone, somewhere, sometime, but not with us... and never...
Naturally, all the charm of our wonderful evening disappeared somewhere and I no longer wanted to dream about anything else. Life again made me understand that, no matter how hard we try, not so many of us are truly given the right to have control in this world... The death of my grandfather truly turned my whole life upside down in the literal sense of the word. He died in my children's arms when I was only six years old. It happened early on a sunny morning, when everything around seemed so happy, affectionate and kind. In the garden, the first awakened birds happily called to each other, cheerfully passing on the latest news to each other. The rosy-cheeked dawn, softened by the last morning's sleep, was just opening her eyes, washed with morning dew. The air was fragrant with the amazingly “delicious” smells of a summer riot of flowers.
Life was so pure and beautiful!.. And it was absolutely impossible to imagine that trouble could suddenly mercilessly burst into such a fabulously wonderful world. She simply had no right to do this!!! But it is not in vain that it is said that trouble always comes uninvited and never asks permission to enter. So this morning she came to us without knocking, and playfully destroyed my seemingly well-protected, affectionate and sunny children’s world, leaving only unbearable pain and the terrible, cold emptiness of the first loss in my life...

“The British Empire is dead. So is the era of cultural trophies,” ends an article by English art critic Jonathan Johnson in The Guardian. He is echoed by J. J. Charlesworth in Art Review: the very fact of the referendum in Scotland showed that the system British Empire hopelessly outdated and it’s time to abandon their political illusions, and at the same time all claims to dominance in the art sphere. The ancient Greek statues, which have been in the British Museum for the last 150 years, are called nothing less than “looted spoils”. Hence the campaign that has unfolded in the country to return antiquities to their homeland.

Now a second wave of restitutions is beginning in Europe. The issue of returning art objects illegally exported from conquered countries is also acute in France and Germany. However, it would be a mistake to consider this only European problem: Japan was also forced to return South Korea about 1400 works. This trend is explained by globalization, when the national idea is placed below interstate interests.

In Russia the situation is different. After World War II, Soviet troops removed a huge number of works from museums and private collections of the Third Reich. Later, in 1955, the USSR returned the paintings to museums in East Germany and the countries that signed the Warsaw Pact. Exhibits from Germany were kept for a long time in Moscow, Leningrad and Kyiv under the heading “Secret”, although the other winning countries had already given away most of what was exported. Like a true empire Soviet Union did not take into account the opinion of the European public. Only in 1992 did Helmut Kohl and Boris Yeltsin begin to discuss the possibility of returning exported works to Germany. However, at this stage everything ended: in 1995, Russia imposed a moratorium on restitution.

The problem of returning works, which arises in Western Europe, applies only to the plane of post-war trophies, while in Russia everything is much more complicated. After the revolution, Soviet museums enriched themselves at the expense of private “dispossessed” collections. Therefore, critics of restitution fear that by transferring things to foreign heirs, Russian descendants of collectors will be able to assert their rights. So it's safe to say that the items below in the list will remain in domestic museums forever.

"Unknown masterpieces" in the State Hermitage

Works by French artists of the 19th and 20th centuries from the collections of Otto Krebs and Otto Gerstenberg were hidden during World War II and then taken to the Soviet Union. Many paintings from the collection were returned to Germany, but some are in the Hermitage.

The central place is occupied by the works of impressionists and post-impressionists. These are Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne - in total more than 70 paintings by first-rate artists.

Pablo Picasso "Absinthe", 1901

Edgar Degas "Seated Dancer", 1879-1880.

Baldin collection of graphics in the State Hermitage

The collection consists of more than 300 drawings by such famous Western European artists as Durer, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens and Van Gogh. The collection was found by chance Soviet soldiers in one of the castles, where he was transported from the Bremen Kunsthalle. Captain Baldin saved the precious sheets from theft and sent them to Moscow. Now they are in the Hermitage.

Albrecht Durer "Women's Bath", 1496


Vincent Van Gogh "Cypress Trees on a Starry Night", 1889

Collection of Frans Koenigs in the Pushkin Museum

Banker Frans Koenigs was forced to sell his rich collection of drawings by old masters, and by the beginning of World War II it ended up in the Dresden gallery, from where it was removed Soviet troops. Until the early 1990s, the drawings were kept secretly in Moscow and Kyiv. Then, in 2004, Ukraine handed over the sheets it had kept to its heirs. Moscow is not inferior: 307 drawings are in the Pushkin Museum.


Drawing by Peter Paul Rubens


Drawing by Rembrandt van Rijn

"Schliemann's Gold" in the Pushkin Museum and the State Hermitage

The objects were found by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann during excavations of Troy in 1872–1890. The collection consists of 259 items dating from 2400 - 2300 BC. e. Objects made of gold, silver, bronze and stone were stored in Berlin before the war. Now the most valuable of them are in the Pushkin Museum, the rest are in the Hermitage, and it is unlikely that anything will change. Irina Antonova, former director of the Pushkin Museum, said of the restitution: “As long as we have the gold of Troy, the Germans will remember that there was a war and that they lost it.”

Great Diadem, 2400 – 2200 BC.


Small Diadem, 2400 – 2200 BC.

Gutenberg Bibles in the Russian State Library and Moscow State University Library

European printing originated in Germany in the 15th century. Johann Gutenberg published the first book, a 42-line Bible, in the mid-1440s in the city of Mainz. Its circulation was 180 copies, but by 2009 only 47 of them had survived. By the way, one sheet of this book costs 80 thousand dollars.

Soviet troops took two Bibles from Leipzig. One of them is kept in the library of Moscow State University, and the existence of the other was announced by the authorities only in the 1990s. This copy is in the Russian State Library.