Society of Antiquities and Art

Society of Antiquities and Art (Київське товариство старожитностей і мистецтва; Kyivske tovarystvo starozhytnostei i mystetstva). A society founded in 1897 on the basis of the Kyiv Society of Art Promoters and an organizing committee for the creation of a museum in Kyiv. It was led by Bohdan Khanenko and numbered about 200 members. The artifacts collected by the society were kept in the Kyiv City Museum of Antiquities and Art (director Mykola Biliashivsky). The society existed until 1908. In 1936, its historical collections formed the basis of the Kyiv Historical Museum (now National Museum of the History of Ukraine) and its art collection formed the basis of the Kyiv State Museum of Ukrainian Art (now National Art Museum of Ukraine). Its folk-art collections later formed the basis of the Kyiv Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art (established in 1964).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]