Kept in the London archives of the Romanov returned to Russia
Moscow. 2 Aug. INTERFAX.RU Archive of the Romanovs more than 200 documents that were stored in London, added to the funds of the State Museum-reserve (GMZ) “Tsarskoye Selo”.
As told journalists the General Director of the state Museum Olga Taratynova, the archive includes letters, photos, postcards of members of the Romanov family. Documents were stored in one of the private collections of London, previous owner’s name is not called.
“When we learned the structure of the archive, we realized that they should belong to Russia, they should not be separated. The archive could not allow the auction, this would mean the separation of the unique collection into lots, it would be broken into pieces and dispersed into different collections. We started to look for a patron. German Gref (head of Sberbank of Russia) almost immediately identified the desired amount, and in December we became the owners of this archive,” said Taratynova.
It is noted that the archive was worth about 5.3 million rubles. In the Museum say that historical and memorial points of view, the archive is priceless.
Transferred to the Museum archive of the Romanovs — the biggest whole collection of documents and photographs related to the Imperial dynasty, which replenished the funds of the state Museum “Tsarskoe Selo” for almost 100 years. It covers the period from the mid 1860s to 1928.
Found in the archive — more than 200 documents, including letters, photographs, telegrams, drawings.
They are associated with Emperor Alexander III, Empress Maria Feodorovna, Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, Grand Dukes and duchesses.
The archive also includes 20 photos of the members of the Romanov dynasty.
According to Taratynova, the Museum expects to open after the restoration of part of the premises of the Alexander Palace, the archive will be placed in the Eastern wing.