The Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine is a branch of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine — a true treasury preserving one of the most valuable collections of ancient gold in Europe. It is located in the Kovnir Building, a mid-18th-century structure within the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Founded in 1969, the museum today holds more than 60,000 artifacts spanning the period from the Bronze Age to the 18th century.
The greatest pride of the collection is the Scythian gold: jewelry, weapons, and ritual objects from the 4th–3rd centuries BCE discovered in burial mounds of the Northern Black Sea region. These objects impress not only because of the value of the metal, but also because of their extraordinary craftsmanship — delicate ornamentation, scenes of hunting and battle, and depictions of animals in the so-called Scythian animal style.
Particular attention is also drawn to artifacts from Sarmatian, ancient Greek, and medieval cultures, as well as Cossack-era jewelry decorated with enamel and precious stones.
It is worth noting that part of the museum’s collection became the center of an international controversy: the Scythian gold sent to an exhibition in the Netherlands in 2014 became the subject of a legal dispute between Ukraine and Crimea after the annexation of the peninsula. In 2023, a Dutch court finally ruled the case in favor of Ukraine.
Thus, every exhibit here is not merely a work of art, but also part of the living and complex history of the country.