The official closure ceremony of the European Year of Cultural Heritage was held on December 17 in the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia. The event was led by Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport - Levan Kharatishvili, EU Ambassador to Georgia Karl Harcelli and Director of Georgian National Museum - David Lortkipanidze. The event was attended by representatives of diplomatic corps, international organizations and heritage spheres.

Preserving the past, understanding the reality and the right vision of the future: these are the challenges facing museums, serving as treasuries and homes of learning. Together with the preservation of the cultural heritage, one of the priorities for the Georgian National Museum became the study of the history of technological innovations, revealed by experimental research on the many unique artefacts kept in the Museum’s collections. The exhibition presents for the first time to the public the results of experimental research carried out on a unique polychrome artefact from the Museum collection, the Trialeti cup which represents a masterpiece of goldsmith’s work dated to the second Millennium BC. Reconstructed ancient technological methods were employed to make goldworking tools and an exact copy of the cup. A film also shows the process of reconstruction of the cup (the author of the project is Ermile Maghradze).

Together with ancient archaeological finds, the exhibition also presents for the first time some gold jewellery of Late Antiquity (2nd-4th century AD), goldsmiths’ tools from the Museum’s ethnographic collection, and items made from gold and precious metals. These display the accumulated knowledge that continued for centuries on Georgian territory, that was passed on from generation to generation, and that secured a special place for Georgian metalwork within European civilization.

The exhibition ‘Wisdom Transformed into Gold’ provides an opportunity for viewers to study the Trialeti cup in details with the help of the visual modern techniques. The Trialeti cup can be seen in the permanent exhibition of “the Archaeological Treasury.”

The exhibition is accompanied by various educational programs for the viewers of every interest and age.

Within the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the following projects were implemented with the coordination of the Ministry and various LEPL institutions:

● Action-Performance "Night at the Museum" where approximately 101 Museums participated. The number of participants exceeded 90,000 people;

● European Heritage Days, which took place in 9 regions of Georgia.

Organized by:

-          150 exhibitions in Georgia;

-          6 Exhibitions abroad.

-           The number of visitors in museums exceeded 1 200 000.

The new institution was opened within the European year of Cultural Heritage - the Museum of History of Georgian Medicine and rehabilitation of Telavi History Museum.

Organized by:

-           12 International Conferences;

-          Workshops;

-          Lectures;

-          Educational programs.

One of the major projects of the year was the "Students' Cultural Heritage", which is the best example of education and culture cooperation. Within the framework of the project, students of Media Faculty of Tbilisi State Academy of Arts prepared video footage, animated infographics and many more.