The conference in the Moscow Kremlin state museums “Historical weapons in museums and private collections”

In November 2016 in the Moscow Kremlin State Historical and Cultural Museum and Heritage Site in the framework of events dedicated to the 210th anniversary of the Armoury Chamber museum, an international conference “Historical weapons in museums and private collections”. This scientific forum continued the tradition of conferences held in the Moscow Kremlin Museums in 1999-2007. The participants of this forum discussed a number of priority topics for the studies of the weapon collection history in the Kremlin. These topics were relevant to the national and world studies of weaponology as a whole. In addition to general issues of the history of arms and armour, a number of reports were devoted to the functioning of the historical centers of arms production, weapons collections in Russia and abroad, particular items, as well as the activities of gunsmiths, designers of weapons. The conference was attended by representatives of more than 20 Russian and foreign museums, 14 academic and university research centers and institutions, private collectors and lovers of ancient weapons. During the three days of the conference 36 reports were presented and discussed. Organizers of the conference highlighted a number of reports including new attributions of the items from the Kremlin collections. The conference program is available on the official website of the Moscow Kremlin State Museums. The conference results were published as a collection of proceedings. The weaponology forum in the Kremlin will be held annually. The Moscow Kremlin Museums invite researchers of historical weapons, museum employees and collectors to the active cooperation.