by the collection of religious sculptures, ritual objects, and thangka scroll paintings. The group of early Byzantine icons comprises four items created in the 6th and 7th centuries, not long before the Iconoclasm began. These are "John the Baptist" (6th century), "The Virgin with the Child" (6th century), "Saints Sergius and Bacchus" (7th century), "A Male Martyr and a Female Martyr" (7th century). The museum also holds later icons from the Byzantine Empire and Cyprus. The Ancient art collection includes works of Ancient Egyptian sculpture (in particular, "God Thoth as a baboon"), Ancient Greek pottery, Etrurian sculptures, Ancient Roman portrait busts and glassware. Gallery of some works on display Buildings In compliance with the Last will of Bohdan Khanenko (1917) and the Deed of Gift signed by Varvara Khanenko (1918), their Kyiv estate at 15 Tereshchenkivska Street became an art museum. By decision of the Kyiv city authorities in 1986, a neighbouring house at 17 Tereshchenkivska Street, the historic house of the Sakhnovskis, the Khanenkos' close relatives, became part of the Khanenko Museum. In 2006, a renewed permanent exhibition of Asian arts opened on the first floor of the house. The Khanenkos' Mansion The historic mansion of Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko located in Kyiv at 15 Tereshchenkivska Street is one of the city's precious architectural landmarks. Its history goes back to the early 1880s, when the Ukrainian "sugar king" Nykola Tereshchenko, the father of Varvara Khanenko, purchased a large plot of land with a three-storeyed house on a new Kyiv street, which was then called Oleksiivska. In 1882–1888, another house was constructed on the vacant part of the site, with two storeys on the front façade and three storeys from the courtyard. The project was most likely designed by Robert-Friedrich Meltzer. In 1888, Nykola Tereshchenko transferred the newly built house and this part of the land to his eldest daughter, Varvara. In 1891, the Khanenkos commissioned the completion of the mansion's left wing (Olexander Kryvosheyev's project). In 1889–1890, Bohdan and Varavara were engaged in designing the interiors. Intended for displaying their rich art collection, the house was conceived by the owners as a kind of "art history theatre". The Khanenkos were inspired by the European fashion for historical stylization in architecture. They commissioned an artistic design "in the spirit" of a particular historical era for almost every hall of the ground and the first floors. Thus, the mansion had a