Russian Jewels in U.S. Show

Russia’s state jewels will be seen in America for the first time Wednesday when the Corcoran Gallery of Art opens “Jewels of the Romanovs: Treasures of the Russian Imperial Court” in Washington, D.C. The exhibit will later be in San Diego.

On display will be the world’s largest table-cut (like a pane of glass) diamond, a 27-carat jewel that acts as a window for a miniature portrait of Czar Alexander I, set in a bracelet, according to Nicholas Nicholson, the exhibit’s American coordinating curator. Other highlights are a brooch set with a 260-carat sapphire and the diamond-encrusted Cross of the Order of Alexander Nevsky, a military medal rarely awarded outside the imperial family.

The jewels normally are kept in a limited-access museum beneath the Kremlin Armory, and only a few pieces have been shown outside Russia--and never in the U.S., Nicholson said.

Besides the jewels, the Corcoran exhibit includes costumes, paintings and religious artifacts of the Romanov Dynasty from the 18th century to its end in 1917, when Czar Nicholas II abdicated. The 250 objects were culled from Russia’s State Diamond Fund and four other Russian collections.

Admission is $9 adults, $5 seniors and students 6 to 18, free under 6. The exhibit ends April 13 at the Corcoran; it is scheduled for Aug. 16 to Oct. 26 at the San Diego Museum of Art. Information: (202) 639-1700.