On 28 June 2024, the National Art Museum presented the album-catalogue ‘Material and Spiritual Culture of the Peoples of Yakutia in the Museums of the World. Volume 2. Book 2. ‘Museums of Germany’. Sergey Mestnikov, Deputy Chairman of the Government, noted the historical significance and huge contribution of the album-catalogue to the cultural heritage of the republic. Valentin Gavrilievich Isakov, an artist of the Olonkho theatre, brightened up the presentation with a great performance of a Toyuk (yakutian folk song improvisation) in honour of the event, and also performed a song from the Evenki nimngakan ‘Dyolomo mevalkan Dyolorgun mata’ and a translation of the song in Yakut language.
The work published by ‘Ayar’ contains images of artefacts of the peoples of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) stored in German museums. V.V. Timofeeva, executive director of the Museum. Vlada Timofeeva noted that the largest amount of Yakutia's material heritage abroad is in German museums. The second book publishes artefacts that are under the custody of the Hamburg Ethnographic Museum, the Linden State Museum of Ethnography, the Rautenstrauch-Jost Museum of World Cultures, the Overseas Museum, the Museum of the Five Continents. Previously unexplored items of Sakha, Dolgan, Evenk, Evenk, Yukaghir material culture will make it possible to expand and clarify this area of scientific research. The museum staff carried out extensive work on communication with foreign museums, identification of objects of material culture, information about the agents who provided the exhibits, and systematisation of objects.
Recall that the catalogue is published as part of the project ‘Material and spiritual culture of the peoples of Yakutia XVII-XX centuries in the museums of the world’, which was launched in 2006 and later received international status in 2016 after the presentation at the UN headquarters in New York by Alexander Zhirkov, historian, first deputy chairman of the State Assembly (Il Tumen), head of the project.
Asya Konstantinova, Leading Specialist of the UNESCO Chair at M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University