The Gold Deer of Eurasia

On 9 June, 2002, the exhibition organized by the State Hermitage in conjunction with the Centre for Ethnological Studies of the Ufa Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Science and with the support of the Metropolitan Museum (New York) and the "Elemond" publishing house (Milan) was opened in Ufa.
The opening ceremony was attended by the President of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov and the State Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky who said that "there is no other exhibition in Russia today which can rival 'The Gold Deer of Eurasia' in its historical and cultural significance and impressiveness".
The exhibition includes more than 200 items. Alongside the remarkable works of Scythian art from the world-famous Hermitage collection it presents artifacts found by Ufa-based archaeologists under the direction of Anatoly Pshenichniuk during excavations of the Filippovka burial mounds in the late 1980s. The most unusual discoveries are massive wooden figures of deer with mighty branched antlers covered with gold plates. The image of the deer provides the present exhibition with its title.
The unique archaeological finds are exceptionally beautiful and expressive, the greater part of them are made of gold or decorated with gold elements.
In 2001-2002 the exhibition enjoyed success at the Metropolitan Museum (New York), Palazzo Reale (Milan) and the State Hermitage (St Petersburg).
Many artifacts from the excavated burial mounds had been damaged or decayed and had to be restored by the Hermitage's specialists.

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