Galleries
The exposition is arranged on three floors in 28 show-rooms, with a total area of 1,000 square meters. It contains five sections:
- Origin of amber, its properties
- Historical and archaeological knowledge of amber
- Amber in art of the 17th to 18th centuries
- Kaliningrad Amber Factory
- Amber in contemporary art
A part of the exhibition is dedicated the "Staatliche Bernstein-Manufaktur Koenigsberg" (amber factory Koenigsberg), a German company for extraction and treatment amber in Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) and Palmnicken (today Jantarny) until 1945.
The museum has unique pieces of the Baltic gem (a 4-kilogram 280g sampler, the largest in the Amber Museum collection), as well as more than two thousand pieces of art from it.
The museum is the only owner of fragments of the decor of the Amber Room, restored by artists G. Khozatsky, V. Ertsev, V. Vorobyov, A. Zhuravlev, A. Vanin, M. Ertseva and L. Grigorieva. The artists managed to revive the technology of processing amber, which was used by masters of the 17th-18th centuries [8]
In the museum there are dioramas of the ancient "amber forest" and a career in the extraction of the amber "blue earth", many pieces (more than a thousand) [9] of amber with inclusions of Mesozoic plants and animals, including lizards. The whole spectrum of amber colors is shown from white to black. Amber products of the 4th-5th centuries AD, also found by archaeologists on the territory of the Kaliningrad region, were exhibited, as well as works by German masters handed over from the Armory Chamber.
Exhibitions
In 2004, an exhibition of a foreign artist-jeweler, designer Lisa Vershbow from the US, was organized, which demonstrated new approaches to the artistic interpretation of amber. The American jeweler held master classes with young Kaliningrad artists [15].
In 2005, by the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad / Koenigsberg, the Amber Museum exhibited masterpieces of the processing of amber from the 16th and 18th centuries from the collection of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve, from the famous Amber Room. This exhibition marked the beginning of the project "Amber Collections of Russia and Europe in the Kaliningrad Amber Museum". Other thematic exhibitions were held: "Baltic amber in the State Hermitage collection" (2007) in St. Petersburg, "Union of Earth and Water" (2008) from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums (Armory) in Moscow and others. [10] In 2005 the museum visited the exhibition "Japanese Amber" and the exhibition "Conquerors of the Earth" from the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, dedicated to insects that inhabited the planet 650-50 million years ago. [10]
Foreign cooperation
Among the partner countries are Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, United States, Italy, Austria, France. In 2007–2008, the Amber Museum with the Amber Coast of Russia exhibition took part in the presentation of the Kaliningrad region in the framework of the 9th Russian Art Festival in Cannes, France. Then the exhibition visited Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
One of the most important Museum activities is organization and holding of the International Biennial of Amber Art Works «Alatyr» (an Old Russian name of amber) since 2004, since 2012 – the All-Russian Jewelry Art Exhibition.
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry and has been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.
The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber from coastal areas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade routes between Northern and Southern Europe were defined by the amber trade.
Kaliningrad Oblast is the westernmost federal subject of the Russian Federation, in Central and Eastern Europe. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The oblast is surrounded by two European Union and NATO members: Poland to the south and Lithuania to the north and east. The largest city and administrative centre of the province (oblast) is the city of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg. The port city of Baltiysk is Russia's only port on the Baltic Sea that remains ice-free in winter. Kaliningrad Oblast had a population of roughly 1 million in the Russian Census of 2021.
Sambia or Samland or Kaliningrad Peninsula is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. The peninsula is bounded by the Curonian Lagoon to the north-east, the Vistula Lagoon in the southwest, the Pregolya River in the south, and the Deyma River in the east. As Sambia is surrounded on all sides by water, it is technically an island. Historically it formed an important part of the historic region of Prussia.
The terms Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Rim countries, and the Baltic Sea countries/states refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea, mainly in Northeastern Europe. The term "Baltic states" refers specifically to one such grouping.
The Curonian (Courish) Spit is a 98-kilometre (61 mi) long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by Lithuania and Russia. Its southern portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, and its northern within southwestern Klaipėda County of Lithuania.
Lithuania Minor, or Prussian Lithuania, is a historical ethnographic region of Prussia, where Prussian Lithuanians lived, now located in Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia. Lithuania Minor encompassed the northeastern part of the region and got its name from the territory's substantial Lithuanian-speaking population. Prior to the invasion of the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century, the main part of the territory later known as Lithuania Minor was inhabited by the tribes of Skalvians and Nadruvians. The land depopulated during the incessant war between Lithuania and the Teutonic Order. The war ended with the Treaty of Melno and the land was repopulated by Lithuanian newcomers, returning refugees, and the remaining indigenous Baltic peoples; the term Lithuania Minor appeared for the first time between 1517 and 1526.
Palanga is a resort city in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea.
The Green Vault is a museum located in Dresden, Germany, which contains the largest treasure collection in Europe. The museum was founded in 1723 by Augustus the Strong of Poland and Saxony, and it features a variety of exhibits in styles from Baroque to Classicism. The Green Vault is named after the formerly malachite green painted column bases and capitals of the initial rooms. It has some claim to be the oldest museum in the world; it is older than the British Museum, opened in 1759, but the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg, Russia was opened in 1714 and the Vatican Museums date their foundation to the public display of the newly excavated Laocoön group in 1506.
The Palanga Amber Museum, near the Baltic Sea in Palanga, Lithuania, is a branch of the Lithuanian Art Museum. It is housed in the restored 19th-century Tiškevičiai Palace and is surrounded by the Palanga Botanical Garden. The museum's collection of amber comprises about 28,000 pieces, of which about 15,000 contain inclusions of insects, spiders, or plants. About 4,500 pieces of amber are exhibited; many of these are items of artwork and jewelry.
Königsberg is the historic German and Prussian name of the medieval city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Baltic Crusades. It was named in honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, who led a campaign against the pagan Old Prussians, a Baltic tribe.
Culture of Lithuania combines an indigenous heritage, represented by the unique Lithuanian language, with Nordic cultural aspects and Christian traditions resulting from historical ties with Poland. Although linguistic resemblances represent strong cultural ties with Latvia in various historical moments Lithuania was influenced by Nordic, Germanic and Slavic cultures. Various cultural changes occurred throughout Lithuania's transformation from a country occupied by the Soviet Union to an independent Baltic state. The culture of Lithuania can be divided into five ethnographic regions: Dzūkija, Samogitia, Aukštaitija, Sudovia and Mažoji Lietuva.
Art Museum Riga Bourse is a museum in Riga, Latvia. It was established in 1920 and contains the most extensive collection of world art in Latvia from Ancient Egyptian/Middle Eastern art dating back to 5000 BC to present.
Vidmantas Jusionis is a Lithuanian painter.
The Amber Coast is the name given to a coastal strip of the Baltic Sea in the northwest of Kaliningrad. In this area amber has been excavated since the mid-19th century and up to today in open-pit mining. Two deposits – Palmnikenskoe and Primorskoe, containing 80% of world amber reserves, were found near Yantarny on the Western coast of the Sambia Peninsula in 1948-1951’s.
Helēna Demakova is a Latvian art historian, curator of art exhibitions, and politician. She served as Culture Minister of Latvia from 2004 until 2009 and was a Member of the 9th Saeima and lecturer at the Art Academy of Latvia.
Mall Nukke is an Estonian artist. A printmaker by training, she is primarily known for her paintings, collages and installations influenced by pop art. Mall Nukke emerged on the Estonian art scene in the early 1990s, her work at the period can be seen as commentary of nascent mass culture and consumer society in newly independent Estonia. Her early collages combined various cultural references and created new media characters based on real entertainers and public figures. Since the 2000s, Mall Nukke has concentrated on creating photo-manipulations and mixed media paintings inspired by Eastern Orthodox icon art.
Kaliningrad, until 1946 known as Königsberg, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland. The city sits about 663 kilometres (412 mi) west from mainland Russia. The city is situated on the Pregolya River, at the head of the Vistula Lagoon on the Baltic Sea, and is the only ice-free port of Russia on the Baltic Sea. Its population in 2020 was 489,359, with up to 800,000 residents in the urban agglomeration. Kaliningrad is the second-largest city in the Northwestern Federal District, after Saint Petersburg, the third-largest city in the Baltic region, and the seventh-largest city on the Baltic Sea.
Japanese amber is a type of amber that can be found in Japan.
