Especially for the start of the II European Games, the largest private collection of Olympic awards and medals of Vladimir Potanin is brought to Minsk for the first time, which will be presented on June 21 at the Minsk City Hall, BelTA learned from the Minsk City Executive Committee.
“The holding of the European Games is a great achievement for our country. This year, the life of the capital is more than ever filled with cultural events. And we are certainly glad that the city attracts international projects such as the Olympic collection,” the chief specialist of the department of cultural institutions and of the cultural and educational work of the Minsk City Executive Committee Marina Yasyuk. - The opening of the Olympic exhibition in Minsk is another confirmation of the inextricable link between culture and sport. The retrospective of the Olympic movement undoubtedly has th historical and artistic value, and the opportunity to touch the sports victories of yesteryear inspires all of us to conquer new heights. "
To date, the collection includes about 400 exhibits. Among them are gold, silver, bronze and commemorative medals, torches, diplomas of winners and participants of the Games, honorary badges, cups, figurines and horns of the Games of different years. The auction cost of award medals is from $ 2 thousand to $ 250 thousand. The most expensive of them are nominal. Torches cost from $ 1.5 thousand to $ 170 thousand - the price depends on the rarity. “For example, only 100 torches were produced for the Games in Albertville in 1992. Their design was developed by Philippe Starck, who is considered a cult figure in world design,” the organizers said. “There are four champion cups in the collection, the most expensive of which was released for the Games in Paris, 1924. "
The collection of the famous Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin introduces to the history and heritage of the sports movement and Olympism. In 2019, the collection decided to make available to the general public. Minsk will be the starting point of the exhibition project, then the collection will go on an international tour and will be presented at the XXXII Summer Olympics in Tokyo (Japan, 2020), XXIV Winter Olympics in Beijing (China, 2022), XXXIII Summer Olympics in Paris (France, 2024) and other major sporting events.
The most interesting from the historical point of view part of the collection will arrive in Minsk. The exhibition will present the awards of the Olympic Games of the first half of the twentieth century, including the first Olympiad of modernity in 1896 in Athens and the XV Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952, in which the USSR national team took part for the first time. “In addition, the exhibition includes Olympic facilities of three significant Olympiads for our country in the last decades. These are the XXII Olympic Games of 1980, where the Olympic flame was lit in the Belarusian capital at the Dynamo stadium,” the organizers said. - The games of 1994 in Lillehammer, in which the former Soviet republics participated for the first time as separate teams. And the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the 5th anniversary of which coincides with the opening of the Olympic exhibition project. "
A series of exhibition projects is being implemented by a team of the Russian International Olympic University (RIOU) led by the university rector, academician Lev Belousov. "We view the collection of Olympic artifacts of Vladimir Potanin as a kind of traveling exhibition of the history of the Olympic movement, examples of the triumph of the spirit of sporting nobility, the spirit of fair rivalry and friendship, the synthesis of education, culture, science and sport. It is symbolic that the first public exhibition will be held in beautiful Belarus, with which we, the RIOU, maintain partnerships. For us it is a great honor. There are a lot of Belarusian specialists among our graduates, "the rector said.
The Olympic collection is a non-commercial project, its main goal is to give people an inspirational charge before a significant sporting event, so admission will be free for everyone. Visitors to the exhibition can not only see the Olympic relics, but also dive into their history. In this they will come to the aid of modern multimedia technology. Each exhibit of the collection will be accompanied by additional text and video materials that will allow guests to join the history of the Olympiads.
The exhibition of Olympic awards will run until July 14.
Written by belta.by
