Jan 30 2009
Where Are The Russian Crown Jewels?
Many of the Russian Royal Family’s jewels disappeared during the Revolution in 1917.
‘Patte Barham, an L.A. socialite, thinks that many ofRussia’s Crown Jewels are buried in the Gobi desert in Mongolia. She was the step-daughter of George Meskhi-Gleboff, an aide to Czar Nicholas II. Meskhi-Gleboff told her that he was instructed by Czarina Alexandra to take the splendid jewels, including Faberge eggs, rubies and diamonds, to the Bank of China in Beijing. After bandits attacked, Gleboff hid the jewels in the desert.
According to Barham, he gave her a hand-drawn map of the area where the jewels are located. She wants to have an expedition to find the jewels and return them to the Russians.
Some of the Russian Crown Jewels were sold in London by Christies at a famous auction in 1927. They fetched very low prices, probably because the Soviet government just wanted the money. Empress Maria Feodorovna’s Imperial Russian nuptial crown, for example, with its double row of brilliants and diamond cross, was bought by a Parisian jeweler, M.Founess, for only $30,500. This appears to be an unbelievably low price, even in the twenties. Some of the jewels, once guarded night and day by Soviet soldiers, remain in Russia. They can be seen at the Kremlin Armoury Museum.
There is a beautiful online exhibition of the jewels: <a href=”http://www.alexanderpalace.org/jewels/highlights.html”>Jewels of the Tsars</a>
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