#Exhibit of the Month

The 21 beads form part of a bronze hoard found in 2019 within a forested area close to the town of Nisporeni. Alongside the beads, the hoard included numerous bronze ornaments (2 Röschitz-Sanislău-type fibulae, 7 necklaces, 12 rings, 22 tubes, 23 bracelets, and approximately 80 appliqués), one coral bead and a pendant made from a wild animal's tooth. At present, the amber beads are preserved in the collections of the Muzeul Național de Istorie a Moldovei, while the remainder of the hoard is in the possession of a private collector.
The hoard was discovered accidentally in a pit about 50 cm deep. The objects in this hoard are of Western origin, with known parallels in archaeological complexes from Poland, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia, and, to a lesser extent, in Romania. The presence of this bronze hoard on the territory of the Republic of Moldova illustrates the cultural dynamics of the region during the Early Iron Age and a fundamental shift in the vector of cultural influences from east to west.

The amber bead strand comprises 16 whole beads and five fragmentary ones. They have an elongated biconical shape and vary in size. The beads are brown-reddish in color; their lengths range from 1.1 to 3.1 cm, widths from 0.6 to 1.4 cm, thicknesses from 0.6 to 1.1 cm, and the perforation diameter ranges between 0.2 and 0.3 cm.
Amber beads appear in several bronze hoards dated to the Late Bronze Age in the eastern half of Slovakia and in Transdanubian Hungary. Parallels are also known from the Cioclovina Cave in Romania. With the onset of the Iron Age, amber items disappear from the Carpathian Basin for approximately 300 years, reappearing alongside the arrival of Scythian elements.
The bronze hoard discovered at Nisporeni is dated to the HaA2-HaB1-2 interval (1050/1000 - 800/750 B.C.).

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Art in Motion: From Sketch to Film”

October 28 – November 28, 2025

The exhibition "Art in Motion: From Sketch to Film", organized to mark the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, aims to explore the valuable contributions of production designers who have been active since the founding of the Moldova-Film studio, such as Aurelia Roman and Stanislav Bulgakov.

Moldova-Film became an independent film studio in 1952 under the name "Moldovan Studio for Documentary Newsreels." On January 24, 1957, following its reorganization and renaming as the "Moldova-Film Studio for Newsreels and Documentaries," cinematography quickly became a cultural pillar of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, the studio was reorganized into the State Concern "Moldova Film," then in 1994 into the State Cinematographic Studio Moldova Film. Since 1999, following further restructuring, it has operated as the Joint Stock Company "Moldova Film." Over four decades, the studio produced feature films, documentaries, and animated works that shaped generations and contributed to a distinct visual identity in the Eastern European cultural space.

In this universe of moving images, scenography plays a vital role. The production designer is the artist who gives shape to the cinematic world-designing sets, imagining costumes, and creating the visual atmosphere that supports the story. They are architects of emotion, painters of narrative space.

The exhibition "Art in Motion: From Sketch to Film" showcases scenographic heritage preserved in the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova, highlighting the work of Aurelia Roman-a remarkable production designer active at Moldova-Film between 1959 and 1987. A graduate of the Art Faculty at VGIK Moscow, Aurelia Roman contributed to the visual realization of over twenty films through costume sketches, set designs, and film posters, many of which are now preserved as museum heritage pieces.

The exhibition also features works from the collection of Stanislav Bulgakov-production designer and Honored Master of Art of the Moldavian SSR. The artistic collaboration between Roman and Bulgakov visually shaped the identity of Moldovan cinematography in the second half of the 20th century, contributing to the aesthetics of films such as Red Meadows, The Man Follows the Sun, Risk, and Serghei Lazo.

Through this exhibition, the public is invited to discover the artistic process behind the screen-from the first line drawn on paper to the final image on film. It is a journey into the backstage of creation, a tribute to scenography as an art form and an integral part of national cultural heritage.

Opening: October 28, 14:00, first-floor lobby of the National Museum of History of Moldova.

The exhibition Art in Motion: From Sketch to Directed Film will be open to visitors from October 28 to November 28, 2025, in the first-floor lobby of the National Museum of History of Moldova, Chișinău, 121A 31 August 1989 Street.