Iron Age - Europe without borders
Press release from 11/10/2020
On 10 November 2020, the exhibition "Iron Age - Europe without Borders" opens at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Around 1600 objects from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage and the three Russian partner museums will provide an overview of developments in the 1st millennium B.C. Many objects that were taken from Berlin to the Soviet Union during or immediately after the end of the Second World War will be on public display again for the first time in the exhibition.
Exhibition venues and duration:
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg: 11.11.2020 - 28.2.2021
State Historical Museum, Moscow: 15.4. - 15.7.2021
Live broadcast of the opening: 10 November 2020, 2 pm MET (Russian / German)
The exhibition is already the third in a series of exhibitions in which objects from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History from Germany that were relocated due to the war can be seen again; the two previous ones dealt with the Merovingian period and the Bronze Age. It is a co-operation project between the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the State Historical Museum (Moscow), the State Museum of Fine Arts A.S. Pushkin (Moscow) and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin and is one of the highlights of the current Year of Germany in Russia.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, explains: "Europe without borders - the subtitle of the exhibition is also programmatic for our co-operation. The exhibition co-operation was developed in close partnership. For us, the first priority is always to open up the collections: What is located where today? And then we want to make them visible again. This is now happening with great openness and in an extremely collegial and friendly way."
Monika Grütters, Minister of State for Culture and the Media and patron of the exhibition: "The exhibition is a further encouraging step and also an important impulse in the dialogue on the difficult and painful topic of the relocation of cultural assets due to the war. I am grateful that objects removed from Germany as a result of the war are being shown publicly in their collection context after many decades and are also returning to international scholarly dialogue via the accompanying publication. I am very pleased about the constructive cooperation between the German and Russian museums involved and hope that this will lead to many more joint projects."
Michelle Müntefering, Minister of State for International Cultural Policy at the Federal Foreign Office: "The Year of Germany in Russia enables encounters between people in our countries. Regardless of all political differences, it is particularly important now to promote dialogue between civil societies. The exhibition "Iron Age - Europe without Borders" illustrates how fundamental cooperation across borders is. This is all the more true in light of the current pandemic. I am therefore delighted that we have also been able to facilitate this exchange in the digital space and would like to thank all our partners for this."
With around 1600 artefacts, the exhibition paints a comprehensive picture of the Iron Age, which spans the 1st millennium BC. Thanks to the co-operation of the museums, the range of material on display is unique. Around 750 artefacts come from the pre-war collection of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History and are now in Russia. Numerous objects from the National Museums in Berlin were transported to the Soviet Union by so-called trophy commissions during the Second World War. For a long time it was not clear whether the artefacts had been preserved. Since the 1990s, it has gradually become clear which objects from the Berlin museums are now in which Russian museums. The objects relocated as a result of the war can be seen in the exhibition together with around 250 artefacts from the current collection of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History. This is the first time in 80 years that a collection of artefacts has been brought together again. Further artefacts from the Russian partner museums complete the exhibition. As the exhibition will not be on show in Germany due to the different political positions on objects relocated as a result of the war, the partners are creating a joint online version.
Press photos:https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html