Family Possesions

[Tania]

Prince_Xander,

I think I know what you mean. Scattered, stolen, unaccounted, for it all is the sameness, and nauseating to think human beings have the least regard for life, let alone any families possessions.
Kind of sounds like my ex-sister, and her son. It's more than senseless when one thinks about it.
It's the sentiment in terms of whose these articles belong to, and how they felt about these items that makes it so dear. It's not and should not be just alone about the monetorial amount, but indeed, how these objects were received, in the deceased lifetime. All the more if they were exchanges between significant others, and the meaning it held for those loved ones of exchanges. Your more than right, countless items, perhaps in the thousands were stolen, sold off, hidden away, taken as goods of war, but never really returned. Any of these acts are reprehensible. Thieves are just that, nothing less ! There is no excuse for stealing what does not belong rightfully to any other, or family member of the deceased ! Even worse, these people did not die naturally, they were butured, burned, bombed, not even given a proper burial. This understanding would make any human being sick to ones stomach !

Tatiana+

It literally makes me sick to my stomach. . to think of all of our familys possessions scatterd out into creation . with no reguards for importance whatsoever. . and the looting of the palace as well as the ipatiev house. . just senseless stealing. .  not knowing the value of simple everyday items. . if only we knew where just a few of thease items are today. . if only the people who probibly still have them in their possession. . will let them go.  . and give them up to people who would appreciate them like they deserve to be. . .

[vivrosendahl]

In "The last grand duchess" (Vorres) GD Olga mentions a box with
bits of clothing, jewellery and a couple of buttons, which had belonged to the executed family.
She received it while living at Hvidoere, if I understand Vorres correctly.
The box was later interred at a Russian cementary outside Paris.

My question is: Has this box anything to do with the abovementioned baroness Buxhoeveden,
and if not, who brought it about? Would any of the bolscheviks even bother to forward such
leftovers as proof to the exiled family?? I mean, they went out of their way to remove
any trace of the doomed family!

Bear with me, if this question has discussed before!  I am just a newbie  

Viv

[Forum Admin]

A small number of trunks were forwarded on to England, somewhere like 6 or 7 of them as I recall (not for certain on the number, could have been as high as 10 of them?).  They were the personal trunks of the Imperial Family that went into exile.  They contained their clothing (later burned) a few broken bits of china (the blue bordered service of the Alexander Palace) napkins, linens, and the like. Nothing of value.  Bob and I have actually seen three of them with their contents which are still in the possession of the living Romanov descendants. It was pretty dismal really, and most sad to realize these possessions were with them to the end.

[Robert_Hall]

I think it was actually the Whites that sent the trunks, after taking Ekanterinburg, not the Reds.

[CorisCapnSkip]

Did anyone's shoes or boots survive?  Particularly Anastasia's.

[Forum Admin]

Doubtful shoes or boots survived. They were a valuable commodity at the time and would have certainly been kept. Even if they had survived, they would have been burned along with the other clothing of the IF after the trunks arrived in England.

[Sarushka]

What was the reason for burning the IF's clothing?

[Forum Admin]

In Orthodox tradition, the clothing would be considered "first class relics" and the surviving family did not want people to start to revere the clothing. To the Romanov family, the IF were real people, and their close family at that, and they just couldn't stand the thought of people treating their clothes like holy relics (which is rather astute, given what history has shown us).  The Imperial Family were people, real people, flawed like us all, made martyrs by events and fate perhaps, but their family wanted to make sure their clothes wouldn't end up being "worshipped". Bob has heard this many times from the surviving family members, even to this day.

[rgt9w]

Forum Administrator,

I was fascinated to read that you have actually seen a few of the trunks that were shipped from Ekaterinburg. I am glad the Romanov Family has some of the personal items of the Imperial Family and their possessions that were used inside the Ipatiev House. To me, this is extremely important given the Ipatiev House was destroyed. Perhaps the family will choose to exhibit the trunks one day since they are historically important and a tangible link to the Ekaterinburg tragedy.

Is it known if the china was broken by the Bolsheviks or was it broken in transit?

Are the possessions permanently kept inside the trunks or do the family display the items in a private way?

On a different note, is there any evidence that any of the jewels sold by Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga were from the Ekaterinburg trunks?

Thank you again for sharing this information.

[AGRBear]

The jewels in the trunk were not known about until Buxhoveden wrote Xenia and told her where to find them.

According to William Clarke's book THE LOST FORTUNE OF THE TSARS  pps. 155-156.

These particular jewels were never described or accounted for by Xenia or the other Romanovs later.  All we know is what Clarke's book tells us that the jewels were Empresss Alexandra's which had been wraped in a cloth which had been Countess Henrikova's.

Who knows what the value of those jewels were!!!

AGRBear

[AGRBear]

THE LOST FORTUNE OF THE TSARS by William Clarke p. 153:

We're talking about "50 packing cases"

...the jewels which remained on the ground, in the mine shaft and in the Ipatiev House and were discovered by the White Russian investigators under Sokolov.  How these eventually reached Buckkingham Palace, and why, when on arrival, they remained hidden for several weeks we shall shortly discover.

...Their journey back to Europe--basically to Paris and London--can now be traced with reasonable accuracy, if only because the imperial relics left a trail of memories (and thus memoirs) behind them.  The first step of this extensive chain began with General Dieterichs, the White Russian general in overall charge of the investigation, haveing received the cases from Sokolov, handed them over to Miles Lampson (late Lord Killeran)....

...The cases eventually arrived in London where King George later reported that, before Grand Duchess Xenia was able to look at the contents, they needed fumigation."....

Only 29 out of the 50 arrived.  

Various boxes had gone in various directions.  It was thought that the case with the jewels had been lost or that the cases where there were rules and been rifled by thieves and the jewels were gone.  But Clarke goes on to say over on p. 155:

...Wilson soon discovered that Xenia had already received some of the jewels from Ekaterinburg...  

I think most or all these jewels are listed and can be found in various sales of these jewels by members of the Romanov family.

I have been unable to find the list of the jewels found by Xenia who found the jewels of Alexanra's in the cloth with the help of Buxhoveden who had written her a  letter.

AGRBear

PS  I don't know how many of the missing boxes finally were delivered to London or wherever they ended up.  Clarke just mentions the  "29"....

[rgt9w]

AGRBear, Thank you for the information about the trunks and jewels.

[Forum Admin]

rgt,
I am sorry that I didn't answer your questions sooner. bob and I talked about it. While we do know the answers to your questions, we have decided to respect the living Romanov family as individuals and decline to answer them. These are living people and you are asking about personal possessions of their family, after all.

FA

[rgt9w]

Dear Forum Administrator:

Thank you for the response to my posting. I fully respect your decision to protect the privacy of the Romanov Family regarding my questions.

Regards,

RGT9W

[Sunny]

As usual, didn't want to open a new thread.
We knoe Yuriovskij made a list pf the familyìs jewels (the ones they wore not the hidden ones of course) on 21/06 - 04/07.
Does this list exist, or is it included in the list of valuables we can find on the Ap main site?