A portrait of Catherine II and a letter about smallpox vaccination were sold for 93.7 million rubles years of the Empress to Count Peter Rumyantsev on the need for vaccination against smallpox were sold at auction in London, RIA Novosti reports.
According to the agency, the letter and the portrait were put up for auction in the British house of MacDougall's in a single lot. The buyer paid 951 thousand pounds (approximately 93.7 million rubles). The letter is the first historical document about the first vaccination in Russia, known at the moment.
Earlier it was reported that jewelry of the royal Romanov family was sold at an auction in Geneva for 885 thousand dollars (62.3 million rubles). A brooch with a sapphire of 26.8 carats in a diamond frame and earrings with step-cut sapphires weighing 6.69 and 9.36 carats, framed with rose-cut diamonds, which belonged to the aunt of Emperor Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, went under the hammer. p>