New search for Romanov Jewels

[rmptr]

This is clipped from Russia Today, dated jan11, 2009.


Back on the trail of Romanov jewels 90 years on


An American socialite in her eighties, searching for the lost crown jewels of Russia’s Romanov dynasty beneath the sands of the Mongolian desert with a hand-drawn map in mind…a Hollywood scenario? No, it’s reality!

A daughter of a former publisher of the LA Herald-Express, Frank Barham, and an heiress, Patte Barham “was a boldface name in the society columns for years,” the Los Angeles Times says.

Now she’s ready “for the biggest challenge of her life” – to try and find Romanov treasures in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia where, she says, her stepfather Prince George Meskhi-Gleboff buried them in 1917 on the verge of the Bolshevik Revolution.

At the time he was an assistant to the Russian tsar’s treasurer.

Nikolay II’s wife, Empress Aleksandra, instructed him to take the priceless jewels of the dynasty, such as imperial Russian crowns and tiaras, Faberge eggs and opera-length strands of pearls, rubies, sapphires and diamonds, to the Bank of China in Beijing (then Peking).

His group was carrying coffins filled with the treasure across the Gobi Desert when bandits attacked and Meskhi-Gleboff decided to hide it there.

He drew a map, though, and later handed it to his stepdaughter Barham, asking her not to do anything until “the Russian government admitted to the slayings of the Romanovs and recognised them with a state funeral.”

Barham is now eager to find the treasure and return it to Russia.

The only problem is that the map mysteriously disappeared in 1998. Suggestions as to its possible whereabouts include one that it may even be hidden in Gleboff’s coffin at the Hollywood Forever cemetery.

"If it was buried with him, we'd dig the old boy up," Barham says.

In any case, Barham is sure she remembers the spot on the map where the treasure is buried, so, who knows, Russia might soon see the Romanov imperial jewels returned.
eof

Oh boy!
The map is gone,
but an eighty year old woman remembers the precise spot, in the gobi desert!​

 

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[jeff k]

"Following the October Revolution the new Russian Republic, which was seriously low on funds, sought a loan from the Irish Republic, whose finance minister, Michael Collins, had become internationally famous for his fundraising for the unofficial Irish state.

The Crown Jewels were used as collateral by the Soviet Republic for a loan of $25000 from the Irish Republic. The transfer was made in New York City between the head of the Soviet Bureau' the de-facto Soviet Ambassador to America Ludwig Martens, and the Irish envoy in the United States, T.D. Harry Boland. When Boland returned to Ireland the jewels were kept in the house of his mother, Kathleen Boland O'Donovan, in Dublin City during the Irish War of Independence. Before Boland died, during the Battle of Dublin, he instructed his mother to keep the jewels hidden from the Free State until the Irish Republicans returned to power. Ms Boland O'Donovan returned the jewels to the Irish Government under de Valera in 1938. The jewels were placed in a safe in Government Buildings and promptly forgotten about.

On their discovery in 1948, by the new government led by John A. Costello, it was originally intended that the set of Crown Jewels would be sold by public auction in London. However, after consultations as to their legal status, and negotiations with the Soviet ambassador, it was arranged for them to be returned to the Soviet Union in exchange for the sum of $25,000 originally loaned in 1920. The jewels would ultimately return to Moscow in 1950."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Crown_of_Russia

 

[rmptr]

Aha!

A fly in the ointment?

Intrigue?

If they ARE returned, what is the 80yr old woman doing traipsing around the Gobi desert?

Fun stuff!

(Wonder what kind of MD she uses?)

Ha! She might be dowsing with a jeweled pendulum!

Thanks for the post, Jeff. I'll search it out for further entertainment.
Wikipedia is famous far and wide for being a non-source!
But it's always a good place to get started.

Best
rmptr

 

[rmptr]

My Friend,

Doesn't a chilled glass of nice Italian Uvix vodka, consumed early in the evening after a warm, sunny day overlooking the Mediterranean sound better than an Xtreme jaunt through the Gobi with an 80 year old heiress?



I'll need to select the sunny side, myself!
There's a glass for each of us, and perhaps she has a friend...?


rmptr

 

[rmptr]

Yep!

That says it all, Nick.

I think I'd rather search for jewels with you than the crone!


Gobi desert