P. A. Mavrogordato’s collectionin the Hermitage department of classical antiquities: history of acquisition and attribution issues

The fate and composition of some pre-revolutionary private archaeologicalcollections are still not very well known. An example of such collections is the antiquitiescollection gathered by P. A. Mavrogordato. Items from this collection can be currentlyfound in various museums of the world, including the holdings of antiquity jewelry inthe State Hermitage Museum Department of Classical Antiquities. Because of missingrecords due to repeated reorganization of the holdings, especially in 1930, informationabout provenance of the jewelry pieces has been lost completely or partially. Comprehensive analysis of publications and archival documents from the Hermitage and the Institutefor the History of the Material Culture of Russian Academy of Sciences, prepared at the timewhen the antiquities had been found and handed over to the museum, helped recreate thehistory of this acquisition. Comparison of the jewelry with the photographs made by the Imperial Archaeological Committee (Fig. 1-3) helped a lot in establishing precise linkage ofthe jewelry to P. A. Mavrogordato’s collection. Therefore, it became possible to determinethe complete composition of the collection consisting of 69 jewelry pieces made of gold andsilver and dated to the 4th century BC - 4th century Ad. These jewelry pieces coming fromP. A. Mavrogordato’s collection were acquired in 1902-1903 and are now part of the collections of the State Hermitage Museum Department of Classical Antiquities.