Imperial Russia Treasure from Naryshkin Mansion in St. Petersburg

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

Naryshkin coat of arms

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

Marks

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

Not bad

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

Only two docs were found

[JapanX]

Naturally soon enough "heirs" appeared.

Israeli heir to Naryshkin treasure appears

(The Moscow News)

An Israeli national, Nikolai Solovyov, 78, claims he is the true owner of the treasure of the Russian Naryshkin princes, which was discovered by construction workers in a St. Petersburg mansion in March.

Solovyov claims to be the grandson of Prince Vasily Naryshkin and the son of Prince Pavel Vasilyevich Naryshkin, who told him about the treasure, The Metro newspaper reported.

Grandfather’s tales

“He told us about the treasure in 1943, explaining in detail how to find it… Experts can have a look, there should be a phrase ‘When I was young…’ on the things. It is the first line of a poem that has always been a sort of password of the Naryshkins,” he said.

Solovyov married a Jewish woman on his father’s advice in 1980 and emigrated to Israel. He said he wanted to receive at least some of the found heirlooms “to remember my ancestors.”

“By the way, my grandfather has another direct heir, the daughter of my brother, Anna Mokryak, who lives near Odessa,” he said. “And the women who earlier declared their rights to the treasure are not direct heirs, they are grand-nieces of my grandfather, Prince Vasily Naryshkin.”

Low chances

Experts, however, estimate Solovyov’s chances for the treasure as quite low.

“I do not eliminate anything. But as far as I saw the Naryshkin family tree, there is nothing like this,” the representative of the Romanovs in Russia, Ivan Artsishevsky, told Interfax. “I do not know such a person. I have not seen his right to inherit.”

The treasure was discovered on March 27, when the Naryshkin mansion was being restored. More than 2,000 items were found, including dinner sets, cutlery and pieces of jewellery by the best masters. In total, the three dinner sets from 1872, 1914 and 1915, had over 1,000 pieces each, and some items had the Naryshkin coat of arms. Many of them were wrapped in newspapers from August-September 1917, and bigger items, like silver samovars, were kept in boxes with pieces of cloth bearing the smell of vinegar.

Would-be heirs

The treasure was moved to the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna. President Vladimir Putin has already shown it to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, and others.

There have been several claims to the treasure. One of them was from a lawyer called Fyodorov-Naryshkin in St. Petersburg. Another was a resident of South Africa, Pyotr Naryshkin, 65, who is a confirmed reprersentative of the family, but from a different side. He can claim the treasure only if no direct heirs appear.

State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin, however, said that he was just a namesake of the princes, and had nothing to do with the treasure.

[JapanX]

The owner of this treasure can be found in this photo (second from the left)

[JapanX]

Captain Sergey Somov.

His wife was Natalia Somova (Naryshkina).

Here they are in immigration

From left to right Vera Somovf, Natalia Somovf (Naryshkinf), Sergey Somov.

[JapanX]

Sergey Somov died in Paris in 1976, and his wife Natalia died two year later in 1978.

They never returned to St.Petersburg ...

[bilylev]

A nice dreem .

[Trooper_D]

What a fantastic story - thanks for posting it, Nick!

We know that the dexter coat of the two shields accollé in post #34 (and below) is that of the Naryshkin family but do we know anything about the coat (or coats, actually) on the sinister side of this marshalling, please?