“Butterflies and Dragonflies” Apartment-Museum

Igor Alexandrovich’s love for butterflies began in his childhood. Every June, when the school year ended, his parents sent him to the countryside for the summer holidays.

“I moved to a magical world where everything was blooming and fragrant,” recalls Igor Alexandrovich. “Over this entire splendor, butterflies were circling. No wonder my friends and I, city boys, were constantly catching insects and putting them between the pages of books in the hope of preserving this beauty. In one summer, I managed to collect three dozen species of butterflies, which I returned home with. But the parasites that lived on these insects came to life and began to devour the wings, which quickly turned to dust.” Igor Alexandrovich was upset for a long time, but then decided to collect stamps with butterflies. He might have become a philatelist, if one accident hadn’t happened.

“My mother had five or six butterfly brooches in her jewelry box. Some of them broke, but she, having no wish to throw away her favorite jewelry, asked me to repair them,” says Igor Alexandrovich. “I glued the broken pieces together, but it was still impossible to wear them so my mother gave me these brooches. Then my grandmother gave me some of her jewelry, and in my collection of badges with natural stones, in the early 1980s, an unusual collection appeared.”

The museum has a unique collection of items depicting butterflies and dragonflies. In total, the museum has more than 10,000 exhibits from 112 countries. I would like to highlight the world’s largest collection of brooches in the form of butterflies and dragonflies; there are more than 3000 of them. The museum also presents a unique collection of more than 500 silver and gold coins with the image of butterflies on them. In addition, the museum houses a collection of paintings, watches, thimbles, figurines, boxes, and many other items with the images of butterflies and dragonflies.