#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

“Requiem for the Romanian Peasant: the Peasants and Communism”

Opening: May 18, 2020

They have always been on the battlefield. They fought with the Tatars, with the Turks and the Russians, with droughts and floods, with village headmen and activists, with tax collectors and quotas. They have always been defeated and victorious, for their sacrifice always nourished the continuity of history. However, in the fight against the Communists, they lost completely, because it destroyed not only their lives, but also their roots. Without land, peasants lost their essence. They went to wander, left for the cities, leaving the land and the household to women and children, and the harvest to students and soldiers. Those left to work in the fields began to "steal" from public property (which was actually their own property). Today the sacrifice of the peasants revolted in 1949-1950 remains a romantic episode. The final uprisings of 1960-1962 resemble medieval sieges. The day of April 1962, when collectivization was decreed, resembles the fall of Constantinople. Just as the paintings of Hagia Sophia illustrate a world foreign to the one to come, the peasants in the reality of our time seem martyrs without halos. Killed by bullets or ideology, they are the most numerous and innocent prey of communism.

The exhibition "Requiem for the Romanian Peasant: the Peasants and Communism" was organized in March 2009 by the International Centre for Studies into Communism, part of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and to the Resistance - Civic Academy Foundation on the occasion of the of the 60th anniversary of the forced collectivization of agriculture and the beginning of the disaster for the Romanian peasantry (Plenary of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers' Party on 3-5 March 1949). The curator of the exhibition was the late Romulus Rusan, director of the International Centre for Studies into Communism.

By means of archival documents, genuine photographs and evidences of oral history, the exhibition reconstructs the world of a Romanian village, which disappeared as a result of forced collectivization imposed by the communist regime. One of the main elements of the exhibition is a map of the numerous peasant uprisings against collectivization and quotas that took place in 1949-1962.

The Timiş and Arad branches of the Association of Former Political Prisoners in Romania, the County Museum of History in Alexandria and many witnesses of the events, some of which became historians, also collaborated in the creation of the exhibition. The graphic design was made by the architects Octavian Carabela and Marius Marcu-Lapadat.

The exhibition was presented in several cultural institutions in Bucharest, Alba Iulia, Arad, Alexandria, Baia Mare, Brăila, Iaşi, Cluj, Timişoara, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Oradea, Satu Mare and other cities in Romania and at the B.P. Hasdeu State University in Cahul.

The exhibition can be seen in the hall of the second floor of the National Museum of History of Moldova from May 18, 2020.