What Romanov family treasures can you find in the British royal family’s jewelry boxes?
Left: Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. Right: Princess Michael of Kent.
Public domain; Legion Media
Queen Elizabeth II, along with various British duchesses and princesses, can regularly be seen wearing sapphires and pearls that once came from the Russian Empire.
After the 1917 Revolution, many of the House of Romanov’s treasures were smuggled out of the country one way or another. This happened on such a large scale that it is nearly impossible to make even a rough estimate of how many pieces of jewelry were lost.