The Gold Deer of Eurasia

The exhibition that opened on 18 October 2001 was organized by the State Hermitage in conjunction with the Centre for Ethnological Studies of the Ufa Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the support of the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Elemond publishing house of Milan. The exhibition includes 224 items, 13 of which are on display for the first time. They are remarkable finds made by Ufa-based archaeologists under the direction of Anatoly Pshenichniuk during excavations of the Filippovka burial mounds in the Orenburg region of the southern Urals in the late 1980s that caused a sensation in the scholarly world.

These unique architectural finds are exceptionally beautiful and expressive works of art, the greater part of which are made of gold or decorated with gold elements. They are being shown to the general public in Russia for the first time. The exhibition has already been shown successfully in the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2000 and in Milan, Italy in 2001. Many of the items found during the excavations of the grave sites of the ancient nomads were in a damaged condition and have received a new lease of life thanks to the efforts of the artist-restorers of the State Hermitage.

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Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky and Anatoly Pshenichniuk, the head of the excavations at the press-conference

Murtaza Rakhimov, President of Bashkortostan, and Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky at the opening of the exhibition