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 Though many visitors to the Diamond Fund of Russia
Exhibitions desperately want to know what the exhibited Fund's assets are
worth, no one can really put a price tag on these treasures. After all, the
Diamond Fund is the depository into which Russia's greatest treasures are kept.
They are unique, and, theoretically, even if auctioned individually each item will
fetch an unbelievably high price. Therefore, the total worth of the Diamond
Fund of Russia cannot be estimated, or, as put by the head of Gokhran Vladimir
Rybkin: «I call tell the real price of the assets stored here: it's over
four million - the number of people who has visited the Diamond Fund exhibitions
for over 40 years. Isn't it worth it?»
The Diamond Fund is a unique collection of gems,
jewelry and natural nuggets, stored and exhibited in Moscow Kremlin,
Russia.
The Fund dates back to the Russian Crown treasury instituted by Emperor
Peter I
of Russia in 1719. Peter's gem collection was later stored in the
Diamond
Chamber in the Winter Palace.
The Russian State Diamond Fund works as a treasury,
but its historical intent held the monarchs of Russia responsible for
the
contents of the Fund - the jewels, precious gems, and precious metals
contained
therein were not to be sold, given away, or modified, and each royal
ruler was
to leave a percentage of their acquisitions to the Fund; a 1922 study
identified 85% of all exhibits to 1719-1855 (from Peter I to Nicholas I)
and
only 15% for the last three emperors.
The Russian State Diamond Fund is also where the
Imperial Crown of Russia is located, which was made for Catherine the
Great by the
court jeweler Ekart and Jeremia Posier in 1762 and was worn by all
succeeding
Russian Rulers. The crown features an impressive red spinel weighing
398.72
carats, one of the seven historic stones of the Russian Diamond
Collection, and
4936 diamonds arranged in splendid patterns across the entire surface of
the
crown. Bordering the edges of the crown is a number of fine large white
pearls.
The Fund collection also includes a Lesser Imperial
Crown, very similar in style and workmanship to the Great Imperial
Crown, only
smaller and entirely set with diamonds made for Empress Maria, the
spouse of
Paul I. The Imperial Sceptre, also from Catherine the Great's reign,
displays
the Orlov Diamond, which weighs over 189 carats. The history behind the
Orlov
Diamond is muddy, but it seems to have come into Catherine's possession
by way
of Count Orlov, who may have been Catherine's lover and purchased the
diamond
as a gift, or who may have simply facilitated the purchase by Catherine
and
subsequent transfer of the diamond.
Other significant holdings of the Diamond Fund
include
Faberge Eggs, the Shah Diamond, a sapphire weighing over 260 carats,
diamond
rose brooch featuring 1466 diamonds created in 1970 by Viktor Nikolaev
and
numerous pieces of jewelry collected and worn by Russian royals.
In addition, the collection also includes the
rarest
samples of gold and platinum nuggets: 100 gold nuggets, including among
other
The Great Triangle (36.2 kg), The Camel (9.28 kg) and Mephisto (20.25
g).
Precious stones in the Diamond Fund collection are
no
less unique and nearly impossible to sell as they are far too
conspicuous, with
the largest emerald, the President, weighing 1.170 kg, being the recent
addition to the Fund collection. The stone was mined in 1992 in the
Sverdlovsk area
and purchased for the Diamond Fund ten years later. The Shah diamond,
weighing 88.7
carats (17.7 g), first inscription dated 1591, is a gift of Persian
Shakh to
the Russian Emperor presented to atone for the assassination of
Alexander
Griboedov, the Russian ambassador to Iran, in 1829. As a result of this
gift, a
war may have been avoided. The Fund also holds the largest flat portrait
diamond weighing 25 carats (5 g) concealing a miniature portrait of
Emperor
Alexander I.
However, it would be a mistake to believe that the
treasures of the Diamond Fund have never been sold. According to the
regulations adopted in 1719 by Peter I, they were detached as «items
belonging to the state» and were stored in the Renterei (treasury) - in a
chest with three locks. Only by the monarch's wish three officials
(Cammer-president, cammer-councilor and royal rentmeister), each of whom
had a separate
key, upon assembling together could withdraw the precious objects and
hand them
to the royal court for solemn ceremonies. The political importance and a
great
material value stipulated for secure storage of the symbols of royal
power, the
main of which were the crown, the orb and the scepter.
Later the conditions and rules of storing state
regalia began to include other jewels commissioned for the members of
the
imperial family and purchased by the treasury as gifts and awards. Upon
setting
up the Cammer department (treasury) in the Cabinet of His Imperial
Majesty,
detachment of valuables from the private ownership by the royal family
was
fixed legally.
Under each new Russian emperor the regulations of
the
Cammer department of the Cabinet were amended, but the order of storing
and
purchasing valuables remained unchanged. At the same time when a regnant
person
fancied it some valuables were sold, others were altered for he sake of
the
fashion.
But throughout all the time of its existence the
treasury which in the later years of the Romanovs' dynasty became known
as the
Diamond Room was replenished with rare gems, luxurious jewels, insignia,
multiple and various precious stones. The 20th century changed the fate
of the
royal treasury.
At the start of the First World War in 1914 and a
threat for Petersburg the valuables of the Diamond Room were rushed to
Moscow
among others and placed in the storage rooms of the Armory. The items
were
locked away until the late 1920's, when the collection was opened and
catalogued.
Some pieces were auctioned off at Christie's in London, and others may
have
found their way out of the Fund by other means. Historians have claimed
that
during the 1920s the crown jewels themselves were stored in a diplomat's
house
in Dublin, as collateral for a loan of 25,000 dollars that Ireland gave
to the
USSR. The treasures were first exhibited to the public in November 1967.
Originally a short-term show, in 1968 it became a permanent exhibition.
Today, a significant portion of the State Diamond
Fund
can be seen by the public, and some items have even been lent to museums
and
exhibitions outside of Russia. Unfortunately, the fate of those items
once held
in the Diamond Fund is largely unknown.
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