On 21 January 2021, in the Council Hall of the State Hermitage, Alexander Nikolayevich Ivanov, an art collector and General Director of the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, gave a presentation devoted to the exhibition “Fabergé, Jeweller to the Imperial Court”.
The event was held in online format and was accessible to the media. The talk by Alexander Ivanov, an expert on the creations of the House of Fabergé and other Russian jewellery firms, was the first of a planned series of scholarly events devoted to the history behind the Carl Fabergé exhibition. In the near future, there will be presentations by members of the Hermitage staff and other experts.
The exhibition in the Hermitage features items created by the imperial Russia’s last court jeweller. The display contains presentation pieces and personal items belonging to monarchs that were made by the celebrated firm, items of everyday use and interior décor that once adorned the living apartments of the imperial residences, and objects that were intended to become diplomatic gifts. The exhibition is running in the Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace from 25 November 2020 to 14 March 2021.
In his foreword to the exhibition catalogue, Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, writes: “The large-scale character of the business, the abundance of stylistic devices, the host of participants in the process, including first-rate craftspeople, high prices and the complicated fates of creators, clients, new and former owners – all of those things gave rise to massive activity by followers, imitators and forgers, The authenticity of each fresh item that appears on the market can always be disputed and will be. Documents, receipts, the presence of a maker’s mark are no more than a partial help. The consensus of the expert community is not easy to obtain and is often lacking. That is why any kind of new publication is accompanied by discussion. And it is quite right when every new exhibition brings with it round tables discussing general and specific issues.”
Alexander Ivanov is an Honoured Worker in the Arts, a professor, a member of the UNESCO Special Commission for the Preservation of the World’s Cultural Heritage and an expert for the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. He is the author of a large number of books on jewellery, including several that are recommended by the Ministry of Culture as aids to learning – Assaying in Russia (1700–1946), The Unknown Fabergé and Gold- and Silversmiths in Russia (1600–1926).
“This meeting was supposed to take place earlier, but that did not happen due to tragic circumstances – the death of Marina Nikolayevna Lopato,” Alexander Ivanov said at the start of his presentation. “This was her exhibition. Preparations for it began three years before the opening. Marina Nikolayevna and the restorers made several visits to our museum and after long examination of the exhibits made their selection. Sadly, not all the pieces have made it into the exhibition, as the German Ministry of Culture did not permit the exportation of such a large display, but we did manage to bring the main exhibits. Marina Nikolayevna, who found all the documents, was supposed to give a presentation, but today I am doing it.”
In his presentation, Alexander Ivanov spoke about the items included in the exhibition that come from the stocks of the Russian National Museum in Moscow, the Museum of Christian Culture in Saint Petersburg and the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden. He acquainted his audience with the results of the study of the items, presented a large quantity of archive documents that tell about the provenance of the works of jewellery and help with their attribution.
