#Exhibit of the Month

In the dazzling world of precious stones and noble metals, certain jewelers stand out, mastering the art of harmonizing understated elegance with absolute refinement, genius with design, and sophistication with eternal, unforgettable splendor.
The name Fabergé, emblematic of originality and synonymous with the creations of a legendary house, has left an indelible mark on the history of jewelry and decorative arts. Renowned for uniting jewelry, artistic design, and utility into objets de luxe and objets de fantaisie, Fabergé's creations have always captivated with their exquisite craftsmanship. Fashioned from gold, silver, enamel, and precious stones, the pieces produced in Fabergé's workshops testify to exceptional virtuosity, marked by meticulous attention to detail and perfect material harmony. Even works inspired by earlier stylistic vocabularies bear the unmistakable mark of originality.

The National Museum of History of Moldova treasures a spectacular ladle, crafted in Fabergé's workshops in the late 19th century.
The Fabergé ladle is a curious blend of the "Russian style" and the "modern style." Made of solid silver, it features a circular, gold-plated bowl. Its raised, stylized handle (hook-shaped) is adorned with vegetal motifs, triple rings, and silver pearls. The rim is embellished with a wide band composed of rectangular medallions, decorated with spiral loops and stylized scales arranged alternately. The bowl is supported by four hemispherical feet. At the center, engraved inscriptions read: Eugenie von Platonow/St. Petersburg and ТОРГОВЫЙ ДОМЪ „АЛЕКСАНДРЪ"/1863/15/10/1913.
Research suggests that this ladle was commissioned by Alexander Trauberg, a first-guild merchant and owner of the "АЛЕКСАНДРЪ" Trading House located at Nevsky Boulevard 11, St. Petersburg. It was likely created to mark the 50th anniversary of his business in 1913.
The hallmark stamped on the base-Fabergé's K. ФАБЕРЖЕ logo surmounted by the Russian Empire's coat of arms, alongside the female profile in a kokoshnik within an oval frame, accompanied by the Greek letter Δ (delta) and the silver purity standard "88"-confirms that the piece was produced by Fabergé's Moscow branch.
The hypnotic charm of Fabergé's creations defined the aesthetic ideals of an era, embodying exuberance and refinement, crafted by a jeweler to kings and a king among jewelers.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“THE MEMORY OF DEPORTATIONS”

Exhibition dedicated to the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Stalinist deportations of July 5-6, 1949

July 3 – August 3, 2024

The National Museum of History of Moldova is organizing the opening of the exhibition "The Memory of Deportations" on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, at 13:15, in the upper floor hallway, dedicated to commemorating the 75th anniversary of the second wave of mass deportations in the Moldavian SSR.

The exhibition reveals aspects of the history and memory of the victims of Operation "South" from the night of July 5-6, 1949, bringing to the visitors' attention documentary materials, testimonies, personal belongings, artworks, and thematic video materials. The exhibited relics elucidate the context in which the organization of the second wave of deportations took place, the transportation and relocation of Bessarabians to special settlements in the eastern regions of the USSR, as well as recent practices of honoring the memory of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR.

The imposed residency regime, harsh cold, limited bread rations, exhausting labor, and schooling of children in Russian were dictated by the state-party ideology concerning the liquidation of "enemies of the people" and political myths about educating the "Soviet Man" or the "happy childhood in the USSR." The memory and oral narratives of the survivors among the Bessarabians deported on the night of July 5-6, 1949, along with the relics presented in the exhibition documenting their history, highlight the suffering caused by separation from their own homes and confiscation of property earned through hard work, alienation from their native places and forced Russification, the sudden death of those who couldn't survive the horrors of the Soviet occupation, and the decades-long imposed silence by the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR.

The individuals deported as a result of Operation "South" had to adapt to extreme conditions, developing new roles and social networks: through interaction with the locals and local authorities; through integration, as much as possible, into the foreign cultural environment; through learning Russian, which was declared the official language of communication in the USSR; through performing political loyalty and practicing self-censorship, which facilitated reintegration into society and substituting the status of "enemy of the people" with that of "Soviet citizen."

Today, more than three decades after the signing of the Declaration of Independence (1991), the complex and systematic valorization of the memory of the victims of the totalitarian past in the Republic of Moldova remains a desideratum of decommunization and democratization. The local memory communities in the villages and cities of the Republic of Moldova offer examples and models worthy of being followed in the direction of knowing history and memory. The symbolic dimension of commemorative actions aims to constitute one of the main forms of (re)cognition and intelligent assumption of the traumatic past for the memory of the victims of the communist regime.

The exhibition presents an appeal to history and memory as an act of symbolic justice brought to all the victims of Operation "South" from July 5-6, 1949, in the Moldavian SSR, thus contributing to the building of a European culture of memory in the society of the Republic of Moldova.

The exhibition "The Memory of Deportations" will be open for visits from July 3 to August 3, 2024, in the upper floor hallway of the National Museum of History of Moldova (Chișinău, 121A, 31 August 1989 St.).