On 14 July 2025, Bisera Yosifova, Executive Director of the 13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund, and Svetlana Encheva, Director of the ‘Earth and Man’ National Museum, signed a memorandum of joint activities. It defines the direction in which the two organisations will cooperate as partners in the coming years.
NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ is at the heart of the museum’s establishment, having provided the principal exhibits—the ‘Giant Crystals from Brazil’ collection of Ilia Deleff, a Fund donor who, wishing to found a museum in the capital, in 1985 bequeathed his personal collection of unique giant crystals to Bulgaria. It is of significant scientific and cultural value. The giant quartz crystals from Brazil are a natural phenomenon, indeed an extremely rare occurrence. They originate in the state of Minas Gerais, from the Rio Doce valley in the inland parts of Brazil (north of Rio de Janeiro).
The museum is a state cultural institute of national significance. The Giant Crystals collection is one of the two largest in the world, as well as the richest systematic collection on the Balkans, consisting of 1,550 mineral species, including the most complete collection of Bulgarian minerals and a rich exhibition of precious stones.
The ‘Earth and Man’ National Museum was entirely founded in 1986 with donations from Bulgarian and foreign individuals and legal entities such as NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’. The full development of the museum, including restoration and adaptation of the building, constructed at the end of the 19th century as part of the then military workshop complex (arsenal), was achieved with funds from NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’.
Over the years, the Fund has made other donations to the museum. On 9 July 1986, NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ donated 1 ounce of gold, in accordance with the will of its benefactor, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky. On 25 May 2015, NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ donated jewellery made of precious metals, precious and semi-precious gems, and souvenirs made of minerals, worth a total of BGN 72,127.50. The museum displays the Fund’s donation in its permanent exposition.
The Memorandum of Cooperation is valid for a period of five years.
Based on a signed Cooperation Agreement, NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ will initiate donative activities in 2026, with the aim of raising the funds necessary for the reconstruction of the museum.
Ilia Deleff (1921–2012)
Ilia Ivanov Deleff was born on 3 August 1921 in the village of Zlokuchenе, Shumen region. In 1938, he graduated from secondary school in Shumen. The following year, he joined the ranks of the Bulgarian military, serving as a gunner in the Third Yambol Air Regiment, and later fought for the Bulgarian First Army. After the Second World War, he departed Bulgaria.
In October 1946, he went to work in Czechoslovakia, in 1947 in Vienna, and in 1948, together with a group of emigrants, he left for Peru. He passed through Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela before settling in Brazil in 1956, where he worked in the mines until 1957. In the city of Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas, he studied geology and mineralogy for two years, receiving a licence for extracting unique natural crystals. He then left for the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, famous for its mines.
Over several decades, Ilia Deleff gathered extremely valuable crystals from all over the world. In 1961, he began displaying them at various exhibitions. In 1967, he showed all the beautiful and interesting Brazilian mineral specimens in a solo exhibition in Geneva, and the following year, in Paris. Nearly half of the collection of the Pio Mariani Museum in Desio, Italy, and a substantial portion of the exhibits in the museum in Gérardmer, France, were acquired thanks to him.
In 1983, France became the owner of his remarkable collection of giant quartz crystals, and he was honoured with the rank of Commander of the Order of the Academic Palms, one of the highest French awards in the field of culture.
Henri-Jean Schubnel, conservator of the mineralogy gallery at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris in 1995, recalled: ‘When, in 1974, a French delegation visited Ilia Deleff’s yard and warehouse in Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais state in Brazil, they were struck by the considerable number of giant crystals. Such a sight could not be seen anywhere else in the world. The French national collection, which we purchased from Ilia Deleff, contains exceptional specimens and is perhaps the most attractive in the world. Ilia Deleff’s thirty-year collecting activity in Brazil has preserved for the world a unique natural treasure.’
In the collection for the Paris Museum, Ilia Deleff included three monumental crystals: the largest, a black quartz weighing 4 tons, the second was of morion (a variety of smoky quartz) weighing over 3 tons, and the third, a white quartz with numerous tourmaline needles, weighing 2 tons.
The Mineralogy Museum in Strasbourg also owns a collection of Ilia Deleff’s giant crystals: 30 crystals, including a high-quality geode of amethyst weighing 2 tons, and resembling an ancient ship. Another collection of Deleff’s crystals is also kept in the city of Borculo, the Netherlands.
In the book, ‘Phenomenal Crystals and the Collector’, the donor tells the story of his life, a difficult and incredibly adventurous life journey. He remembers with gratitude his father, who taught him to be hard-working and enterprising: ‘There is nothing impossible in life. Anything can be done and achieved, but you need a powerful desire and will.’ He describes his dream of seeing the Amazon lands, talks about his interest in mineralogy, which accompanied him throughout his life, and about his love for giant crystals.
Deleff describes in detail the giant in his collection, weighing 3,000 kg, which he acquired in 1969. This is a group of morion (smoky quartz) crystals, laid on a base of feldspar and mica. This unusual crystal of enormous size required incredible efforts and technique not only to extract from the mine, but also to transport to join his collection. Brazilian television recorded it and broadcast the film with a commentary that this was one of the exceptional treasures of the state.
Convinced that every giant crystal is a living book that can serve as enlightenment for everyone, Ilia Deleff stated: ‘I believe that, one day, the secrets of nature, written on the pages of the “rock books”, which I have collected all my life with love, work and perseverance, will be studied and unravelled by future generations, and this is the greatest satisfaction and reward for me.’
The year 2026 marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of the donor Ilia Deleff.