RUSSIA/ GERMANY: EXHIBITION OF TROJAN TREASURES TAKEN FROM GERMANY AT END OF SECOND WORLD WAR OPEN'S AT MOSCOW'S PUSHKIN MUSEUM

Record ID: 496472

  • Title: RUSSIA/ GERMANY: EXHIBITION OF TROJAN TREASURES TAKEN FROM GERMANY AT END OF SECOND WORLD WAR OPEN'S AT MOSCOW'S PUSHKIN MUSEUM
  • Date: 11th April 1996
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA AND BERLIN, GERMANY (APRIL 11 AND 15, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) MOSCOW (APRIL 15, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. EXTERIOR OF THE PUSHKIN MUSEUM 0.06 2. CU SIGN SAYING "THE PUSHKIN MUSEUM OF ARTS" 0.09 3. INTERIOR OF THE EXHIBITION HALL. 0.17 4. SV/CU EHIBITION ITEMS IN BULLETPROOF CASES (7 SHOTS) 0.52 5. SV RUSSIAN DEPUTY CULTURE MINISTER MIKHAIL SHVYDKOY SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.11 BERLIN, GERMANY (APRIL 11, 1996) 6. EXTERIOR OF PRE AND EARLY HISTORY MUSEUM 1.17 7. SV NEWS CONFERENCE 1.22 8. SV WOLF-DIETER DUBE, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF BERLIN'S STATE MUSEUMS SAYING, IT IS BEYOND ARGUMENT ACCORDING TO POLITICAL, LEGAL AND ETHICAL CRITERIA THAT THE TROY TREASURE BELONGS TO GERMANY AND SPECIFICALLY TO THE PRUSSIAN HERITAGE TRUST. NO HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AFTER 1945 HAS CHANGED THE LEGAL SITUATION CONCERNING THE OWNERSHIP RIGHTS (GERMAN) 2.07 9. SV AUDIENCE/ MAN READING CATALOGUE FOR MOSCOW EXHIBITION 2.10 10. CU CATALOGUE TO EXHIBITION OPENING IN RUSSIA ENTITLED THE TROY TREASURE 2.15 11. CU MAP OF TURKEY AND GREECE, SHOWING LOCATION OF TROY 2.20 12. SCU/SV VARIOUS OF EXHIBITION OF GOLD AND POTTERY ITEMS FOUND AT SITE (4 SHOTS) 2.37 SEQUENCE 5: TRANSCRIPT: MIKHAIL SHYDKOY: "EVERYBODY WILL BE HAPPY WHEN THIS EXHIBITION OPENS BECAUSE WE FOUND A SOLUTION TO THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM -- WE STOPPED KEEPING SECRET THE 'PRIAM' GOLD AND ALL OTHER GERMAN TREASURES." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 26th April 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA/BERLIN, GERMANY
  • City:
  • Country: EUROPE ASIA Germany Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVAC9DUX7K9Q1RU61GZM9Q7BWRKQ
  • Story Text: INTRO A stunning archeological collection taken from Germany at the end of World War II by the Russian Red army is to go on display in Moscow this week.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------- The world's most stunning and controversial archeological collection, the famed "Gold of Troy", will see the light of the day for the first time in over half a century when an exhibition of the most valuable pieces of the so-called Schlieman collection opens in Moscow this week.

    Two hundred and fifty nine priceless objects in nineteen bulletproof glass cases will be put on public view in Moscow's Pushkin Museum on Tuesday, (April 16).

    The whole collection consisting of 637 pieces was confiscated in Germany in 1945 at the end of World War Two by the Red Army. The treasures were brought to Moscow and then divided between The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and Moscow's Pushkin Museum. The Pushkin got the most valuable part of the collection, composed of objects made in gold, silver, crystal and precious stones.

    Among the objects displayed in the Pushkin Museum the most exquisite are two golden diadems, each consisting of a thousand tiny parts and two golden goblets, one for perfumes and another one for ritual purposes. Other adornments include a filigree golden pin and four axe-hammers which Heinrich Schlieman, the discoverer of the treasures, himself considered to be the most interesting pieces found during the excavations.

    Since the Middle Ages travellers had tried to find the site of the ancient city of Troy. In 1873, at Hissarlik in Turkey, Heinrich Schlieman, a German amateur archeologist discovered a unique complex of treasures, recognized by archeologists as Trojan artifacts.

    Meanwhile in Berlin an exhibition featuring the remaining parts of the ancient Trojan treasure opened on Friday (April 12) five days before the collection's highlights were to go on show in Moscow.

    Berlin's Museum for Pre-and Early History is displaying 500 objects from the collection including golden diadems, necklaces, small bronze weapons and copper and silver bowls, which the then East Germany accepted back from the Soviet Union in 1953.

    But the Germans know their display will pale in comparison with the exhibits going on show on Tuesday (April 16) in Moscow's Pushkin Museum and which Germany insists are its rightful property.

    "It is beyond argument that the Troy treasure belongs to Germany," Wolf-Dieter Dube, general director of Berlin's state museums said during a news conference held in the Museum for Pre- and Early History last Thursday (April 10).

    The German claim arose after the balance of the Bronze Age treasure, thought lost for almost 50 years, was revealed only in 1993 to be in the Pushkin Museum.

    The intricate items of golden jewellery -- rings, earrings, bracelets, hairpins -- and decorative vessels including a double-handled drinking cup survived their odyssey and their long slumber in the cellars of the Pushkin in perfect condition.

    The Germans say a 1990 treaty on good neighbourly relations with the Soviet Union provides for the mutual return of booty seized illegally from the other side during World War Two.

    "What remains is the sadness that the diplomatic efforts to return cultural treasures to Germany from Russia have been stagnating for a long time. We are talking about 200,000 museum items, 2 million books and three kilometres worth of archive material. For the German government the return of the art treasures is an integral part of bilateral relations between our two countries" Interior Ministry official Wolfgang Bergsdorf said at the same conference.

    But Russia has so far shown little inclination to return major treasures confiscated by its own trophy commissions, arguing that they were legitimate booty taken from a defeated enemy which surrendered unconditionally.

    Heinrich Schliemann was convinced his find, which he gave to Berlin in 1881, belonged to King Priam, the king of the ancient Greek city of Troy featured in Homer's epic poem, the Iliad.

    The treasure from the site in northwestern Turkey is today recognized as dating to about 2500 AD, some 1,300 years before the Homeric era.


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