Music and Time

This was Russia’s first private museum opened in the early 1990s by John Mostoslavsky, a popular illusionist and magician. As well as dabbling in magic, John also spent much of his life collecting antiques, in particular clocks, bells, samovars, gramophones and old irons and decided to open his own museum to show off his treasures. His collection now spreads out over three historic buildings and includes (amongst other things) over 1,000 bells and 10,000 records. Excursions are constantly going around the buildings, although sadly they are usually in Russian only. On the upside nothing is hidden behind glass and the various gramophones and music boxes all work and are played during excursions, while the clocks are constantly chiming and guides knock out popular tunes on the bells and unusual piano-organs.