The Treasure of the Russian Tsars documentary of Patrick Voillot

[Music] at the heart of Russia the Kremlin the citadel of the Tsar's the seat of the government of the Soviet Union and now the residents of the Russian president for centuries it has been a symbol of supreme power it is also in the sacrosanct place that a priceless treasure can be found it has been through Wars revolutions love stories tragedies and bloodshed once the power of Russia had no limits its rulers were cruel extravagant and deployed an incomparable splendor greater than that of the great Mughals of India and the Shahs of Persian only the largest stones the brightest had the privilege of adorning their jewels [Music] the majority of the treasure was acquired in the 18th century surrounded by the best jewelers czars were bringing their diamonds from India from the legendary Golconda mines [Music] they bought the most expensive stones reaching astronomical prices that no sovereign could imagine in search of scarcity they sent emissaries to the court of the Emperor of China the treasure of the Stars has never been stolen the protections that surround it are such that nobody can even imagine stealing any jewel the finest Ceylon sapphires are part of it as are the finest rubies from Burma the gold mines of the arils provide metal to make the most sumptuous settings in the markets of Western Europe they purchase diamonds from Brazil newly discovered with which they speckled their jewelry [Music] the finest emeralds from Colombia were also coveted by the rulers of all the Russia's [Music] but all these demonstrations of power collapsed in the early 20th century in February 1917 the supreme power flickers before collapsing rumblings of revolution run across the empire the Bolsheviks take the Czar and his family prison the imperial family was awakened at night after midnight they brought three chairs one for the Tsar and for the Empress and the chair for the Tsar of its great duchesses were behind them the political commentary I've with a number of guards indicated to the desire that by the order of Moscow he would be executed that's our did not understand he said in Russian Stosh though what what what's happening he turned to his family and already he'd been shot [Music] not the Autry's don't the empress tried to make the sign of the cross and she did not even have time herself as she was shot as as where the Duchess is in a quite appalling carnage the Empress and the Grand Duchesses had hidden there in their clothes an amazing amount of jewelry several kilos each what happened at this moment is that most of the bullets were deflected by the gems and thus prevented a quick death in the clothes of the Empress was the fabulous ruby of Rasputin old Donna Fitzmaurice [Music] my grandfather Colonel Alexander fair more like to tell a quite amazing story this Ruby had been offered to the Empress by Rasputin a mad religious monk who was introduced to the Imperial couple to heal the Tsarevich who was a hemophiliac the bright red ruby was supposed by some mysterious force to stop the bleeding's which were becoming more and more common in the sick child he's honest I can't she don't for me that solution according to legend in fact the Ruby is curse Rasputin who owned the stone first was murdered by princess I suppose the Empress died with her family in Ekaterinburg the curse continued in time when the ruby was found it was given to the commander of the Red Army Trotsky he fell into disgrace and was assassinated in Mexico assassinate or big seek the Ruby remained in the Soviet Union which after a number of years eventually disintegrated the fate of the Czar's is marked by the history of these jewels that bring us back in time [Music] the Hebrews home killer from that David Eric Bischoff was the founder of the house of Busch home in 1858 settled near the place Von Doom in the Palais Royale and opened a boutique that very very quickly became the provider to all the crowned heads of Europe in particular to the Russian Court we found a picture that represents the Czar and the Empress and we noticed that she's wearing a small tiara which we did not know whether it was one of ours or not not one savvy person seated a note we were absolutely sure now that it's a tiara that was made by us for the Empress what's very interesting is to see it what date it was purchased and then we found it in our book of orders for 1894 like it those who knew Zev also like that so we know that his imperial highness Monsignor the Grand Duke of Russia went to Windsor Castle via Paris for his official engagement Alexandre he stopped at Busch halls and he bought this year it was quite a sentimental gift a gift of love from a young fiance who'd been in love for a very long time it was a very passionate love affair that they had left we think that this little tiara that we lost track of we didn't know at all what has become was worn by the Empress or one of her daughters when they were killed I'm always a way to reason with assist me you [Music] like this countess Alexandra cherami TF who was my grandmother was maid of honor to the Empress so she attended the coronation in Moscow on may 14 1896 she keeps in her memory the ceremony which took place in an absolutely incredible pomp borrowing from mysticism and with great religious fervour in the twilight of the 19th century precious stones from around the world converged on Russia the pageantry was at its height [Music] [Applause] did that person oh yeah it was impressive there was the horse guard who was there the Lancers of the guard the dragoons who formed a guard of honor several kilometers long there was an incredible number of guests in particular the Emir of Bukhara who was there wearing a turban which was literally studded with precious stones and made a very big impression the door would have liked to wear the crown of monomyth there was eight hundred and fifty years old which had a key advantage it was very light it weighed about one kilogram and was lined with fur but the protocol did not permit this he had to wear the ceremonial crown of Catherine the Great which weighed close to four kilos a crown that is covered with precious stones of course about two thousand diamonds the Pia shoes but I do mean yellow [Music] nebula the Empress wore a dress which was embroidered by the nuns of the even offski convent the dress was studded with 10,000 pearls on her chest the order of st. Catherine tied with an enormous diamond Lord the scent caffeine at the ship behind me no medium o SaLuSa it is the Tsar who raises the crown to her head that one supreme power is given to the Tsar through the highest dignitaries of the Orthodox Church sumptuous and solemn sacrament of which Nicholas testified in his diary everything went on in the Cathedral of the Assumption and it still seems like a dream that I can remember my whole life oh [ __ ] said the denied behavior this is an old Russian tradition the famous Manama crown with which were crowned the first Russian Czars even in the 15th century tsar ivan the third grandfather of Ivan the Terrible ceded his throne and his crown to his grandson Dmitri with the same crown all stars of the 17th century were crowned then Russia became the Russian Empire in 1721 the coronation ceremony was changed a different crown was made for each Empress this was the case throughout the 18th century policy Catherine the first wife of Tsar Peter the first in 1762 when Catherine the second ascended the throne she said she wanted the most dazzling crown in Europe with the jeremyposter the court jeweller was called to this work the crown was carried out in two months it was so beautiful that the curator of the royal treasury of Great Britain Lord reyne wrote in his book that it was a hymns of the diamond created during the Age of dinosaurs so this beautiful crown which has no equal in the world served during all the coronation ceremonies including that of the last Tsar Nicholas the second [Music] as in all European royal courts the Russian Court was drawn to diamonds by this precious stone that symbolized the splendor of the court and the splendor experienced a greater and greater degree of importance in the 18th century notably with Empress Elisabeth and especially with Empress Catherine the second Catherine the Great under the reign of which a number of very large stones entered the Imperial collection and one of the most impressive the Orloff diamond which adorns the scepter of the Russian Court which is still preserved in Moscow so we have before us a replica of the Earl of diamond it's part of one of the legendary stones of the Imperial collection and derives its name from crown Gregory Orloff a favorite of Catherine the second who allegedly gave it to him as a present then it was part of the Imperial collection and is now one of the main jewels of the Russian Court and therefore of the diamond fund of Moscow this stone which caused much ink to flow over time is full of adventures and has often been paralleled with another stone of which we have a reproduction here the great McGaw another of those great legendary diamonds whose only trace was in the description given by Jean Baptiste Tavernier in the 17th century one of those adventurers who traded with Russia especially in diamonds and precious stones and tells the story of this phenomenal diamond which could be the Orloff diamond [Music] the history of this great diamond began in southern India near a city known for centuries Golconda [Music] this legendary place near Hyderbad remains the largest diamond producer in the world until the 18th century the biggest and best-known diamonds came out of its ground these stones stemming from bloody incredible stories would grace forever the jewels of the world leaders especially those of the DARS [Music] [Music] even today the mighty city walls stand tall they have protected Indian diamonds for centuries long ago their discovery was made in a rather surprising way in this fertile region a farmer went each morning to his work one day he was sowing his field plowed the day before by throwing a handful of grain his gaze was attracted by a burst in the furrow he had never seen a stone so brilliant in a hurry to monetize his find and fascinated by the beauty of the mineral but without knowing what he had found he picked it up and went to Golconda the nearest town the city was a scene of trade and commerce of all kinds [Music] for a few coins a jeweler bought the stone and then it passed from hand to hand and the price and rumors about it quickly increased the Golconda diamonds have just been discovered the search began immediately in huge stones came out of the mines they supplied royal courts around the world and mainly bazaars my name is Vijay my name is Vijay Kumar my family has been making jewels for 125 years my great-grandfather started his business in the neighborhood of char Minar at Golconda Goodman's lower the mines are not there there are no more mines in Golconda but diamonds are still very renowned their luster is unique if you compare these diamonds and those other mines we see an obvious difference these diamonds have an incomparable radiance and their presentation is beautiful these mines have produced a large number of diamonds of different colors and varieties nobody knows exactly when production began under [ __ ] ketubah Shahi I think things have many went abroad and all stones from this region from surrounding mines Golconda has become a name synonymous with high value and obvious high quality in a diamond is different we can say it is good much to say that a stone comes from the mines of golconda means that it is exceptional [Music] my name is my name is Colette Mejia this fort has a long history more than 500 years it was built around 1518 by the cookie dynasty some historians date its construction back 2000 call go condor today is a construction that dates from the 16th century it was a very rich region extraction of stones was not done in the immediate vicinity of the city it was famous for the industry of cutting and polishing diamonds during this period the most beautiful pearls came from Arabia and Persia and the most famous diamonds from Golconda tavern near the famous French merchant and dealer and precious stones came here at the time of the great Mughal era and he saw the diamond that was part of the treasure this diamond had been cut and according to the adventurer it's gross weight was about 500 carats 100 grams in his writings Tavernier had estimated that 60,000 people worked for the industries cutting and polishing diamonds many famous diamonds and especially the most precious treasures of the Czar's the oral often shah diamonds came from Golconda the city was so rich that the great mughal are exempt decided to appropriate it he doted on the enormous diamonds that imposed respect for his power over his empire after a siege of six months a betrayal allowed him to take possession of the city in the Hindu might these idols these deities are very much respected they feel that everything is coming from there so in Hindu mythology idols and deities are very highly respected people feel that they control all events throughout India and here too these deities are represented with gold precious stones and platinum all precious materials were used to make very rich deities sometimes their eyes were diamonds it depends on the richness of the place the temple and its tone diamonds were also used to heal their convinced of their healing power we thought that by affixing them to the skin by drinking the water in which they were washed certain things happened it was also believed that they had some effects even the power to poison they were the subject of many beliefs all the nobles respected them great lot that is why this industry has been so successful the reason that this industry grown right [Music] it is in the temple of Suriname in southern India that the incredible story of the Orlov diamond begins the temple is situated on an island on the kreb river protected by seven fences only a few followers and guards are allowed to go beyond the forth fence one night a French grenadiers deserter who had converted to Hinduism and a devotee of the temple for several years managed to steal the diamond which replaced the eye of the main idol he ran away and sold the stone which went from merchants to merchants and finally arrived in Amsterdam [Music] Astoria the history of the oral of diamond is rather complicated and contradictory there's a very very lossy of skin by evening of lads it's coming before the delusion given it was also called the Lazarus which was the name of its previous owner the stone was given to European monarchs but nobody dared pay a prize so exorbitant Galia catherine ii dreaming of the most exceptional jewels in menorca go europe bought the diamond she paid for it for seven years gregory Orlov her favourites was only an intermediary for the sales the name Orloff was given to the diamond on the evening of the feast of Saint Catherine November 24th 1773 and that night it was shown to the court it rested on a red cushion and the court looking at this stone whispered or love or love thus the stone became known as the oral law from a purely Gemological standpoint it's a faceted stone it's cut as an indian rose at that time the stones were carved in trying to keep the maximum weight the unfortunate count Orloff did not keep the heart of the Empress on the contrary she chose a new lover to whom she offered a diamond weighing fifty four point 12 carats now estimated at more than fifteen million euros the lucky recipient was general Potemkin Catherines the second stroller dismantled the jewels of the Treasury that were no longer fashionable to make the coronation crown he recovered a red stone known at the time as a broom Ruby which was actually a red spinel close to a ruby but less rare and worthless this spinel was brought back from China in 1672 by Russian ambassador Nikolai's puffer and given to tsar alexis the first said to be the very peaceful Tsar the father of Peter in the 18th century it adorned the Crown's of the Russian Empress's changing from one crown to another it was the famous jewelry of Catherine the second Jeremiah Posey who made it from that time it served at the coronation of all the Emperor's he set this enormous red spinnel at the top [Music] yet about to I work at the University of Moscow 11 years ago we put together a gemology laboratory using a group Spinella carotid which is ste obviously large spinels weighing between 200 and 300 carrots were of great values generally we know their history those of the mines where they came from - one of them is in southeastern primers it's called cool regarding the stone of the great imperial crown its origin is faith at the time people did not distinguish spinel from rubies given kaku coming later Abednego Luke I mean even once scientists determine the difference between these two stones they found many treasures in many large stones were not red rubies positive okok in the new Chile supporting that this was the case here in Russia at the time when these red stones entered into the Russian Treasury analysis did not exist in the end it turns out about 70 to 80 percent of them are spinel this is also the case of the large red stone on top of the great imperial crown [Music] in the late 17th century diamonds from India became increasingly rare at the other end of the world at the same time a new country Brazil had discovered huge diamond deposits Russian rulers quickly became major customers of this new producer my name is Antonio Carlos Fernandez I'm a historian we need to document the sound Jimenez arise if achieve the colonization of the minister rise in Brazil by the Portuguese began in the early 17th century beginning around the year 1690 and continuing through 1715 colonization which began with the South was motivated by the exploitation of gold which in the state of Minas Gerais had a flying star to you in town le pasa the hamlet which formed here would be of fundamental importance to the exploitation of the gold mines meanwhile together with gold stones were discovered with great ease diamonds which emerged at the surface and the gravel explored by prospectors local people without knowing its value even without knowing how to manage this new commercial discovery use these stones in various ways even according to local legends for card games [Music] ooh bad saga me Asia in contact while you're up it was a priest already aware of things and in touch with Europe conscious of the value of the diamond who made the first unofficial shipment of these stones to year clearly this news could not remain limited to our altitude Jukka or to the secret of this single priest the news spread like wildfire in Portugal and people flocked to the region very quickly [Music] would you Magister carbon four to go the diamond sent to Portugal to Lisbon have played a role of such importance in the balance of Portuguese finances that the king but special attention to the ER Alda to Zuko and did not allow any minor to have free access to the city and this took on such proportions that in less than half a century the European eyes din colonized world learned of the existence of the Diamonds of Brazil slaves of all kinds were brought here Pento a Oropeza o colonies odd pursue eternity seduced Jamaat's produces new brazil [Music] in my surmise akaroa Portuguese George the importance at Amanda diamonds were used largely to repay various debts incurred by the Portuguese government to the British crown it was perhaps one of the biggest beneficiaries of the process of searching for diamonds but these diamonds also made their way to different European crowns the Bourbons of Spain the Bourbons of France catherine ii of russia there's no difference Mitch this is a much time before prosperous era pairs whose both was the experience proves both was France's prakit Irina segunda the who see and if we pump water as Joyce from Peru they were used to create jewels crowns and royal sceptre please absolute justice air appeals do serve Jesuit it's still possible to observe the full activity of the operation of the mind in Diamantina involving various garimpeiros this activities that produces many jobs and engine converts that appears yeah in the producido in provision [Music] small and large Brazil's diamonds were used from 1762 to cover the jewels of Catherine the grey aside from her disproportionate taste for destroying her enemies and choosing her lover's the Zarina was making her Empire shine she was surrounded by the greatest artists the best jewelers the intellectuals of that time rallied to her cause they were German English and some French riders that included Diderot and Voltaire Catherine embodied her Empire Russia she said during a bleeding let all the German blood and me run out so that all remains is that the Russian [Music] the greatness of st. Petersburg was the luxury of its palaces peterhof the residents of the emperors of Russia with its fountains waterfalls and Gardens was the idea of Tsar Peter the first in the early 18th century his desire was to match the splendor of Versailles to small for Catherine the Great a half-century later she doubled the area of the gardens similarly for the Winter Palace she enlarged it by adding a trifle B Hermitage with a kind of frenzy but with bloom and prestige she built beautified and restored her empire but one of the most beautiful sights in the Imperial Russian opulence is without a doubt [Music] Tsarskoe Selo palace which remains today the largest in europe this palaces construction began in 1711 under the reign of Peter the first his daughter Elizabeth who succeeded him transformed it with a baroque luxury that was unheard of and compared to a heavenly constellation the Emperor's transformed one of the rooms into a unique wonder of the world the amber run its incredible story seems to draw from fiction this room is covered with thousands of pieces of amber amber is a precious gem usually used to make jewels here what is incredible is that the jewel is the setting and we ourselves are inserted into it that's it summer come throw it surfaces nearly 100 square meters it is a square of 10 meters by 10 and it has 7 meters high initially frederick the great emperor of Prussia had ordered from his master amber workers an Amber cabinet measuring only 36 square meters in surface due to the size matter [Music] all this amber came from the Baltic Sea coast formerly belonging to the Prussian Empire later Germany a city dance located in Poland may visit specialty for centuries it trained the best amber craftsmen in the world they supplied the European royal courts with the finest and most excellent creations my fitness icarus the locals who were involved in the cutting of amber are the living history of the art of this region the most prestigious period in the craft of amber is the 16th and 17th centuries it's from this period that the Amber Room dates it's the largest and most prestigious undertaking that man has ever conducted [Music] I'm speaking yes my name is Bing F strategic I'm Master amber craftsman and dansk this city and amber have crossed the vagaries of history at the time of the supremacy of the Teutonic Knights extraction collection and cutting and the trade of amber were highly regulated those who did not have a lease to exploit it and that collected it anyway were punished sometimes through capital punishment for the pionship this was a boost in November question the importance of the quantities of amber in this region of the Baltic Sea are the result of the movement of a glacier which when receding made amber deposits rise to depths ranging from 20 metres below sea level to just 5 meters from the surface in the Kaliningrad region of Russia around dance these deposits were around 20 meters deep upon what is Piazza Plaza we can also pick up amber on the beaches especially after strong winds from the Northeast and after storms same Williams oh boo boo boo steno historia cooking technology on [Music] the waves unleashed by storms tear the amber from the sedimentary layers of the seabed the resin fossil dating back tens of millions of years has a low density and floats on the salt water of the Baltic Sea [Music] Bua thought with a mosaic ii mosaics furniture chandeliers all made of amber by order of the German Court the Prussian King Frederick William first were later offered to the Tsar in 1701 the Emperor of Prussia asked a master amber cutter Gottfried Wolfram to start decorating a room all in amber five years later one walrus ready then another and finally the king ordered to cease the work and store the panels in an arms room in his palace when Peter the first Tsar of all Russians went to Prussia the future German emperor offered him 18 crates containing the famous amber room in exchange his Imperial Majesty received a ship built in the shipyard of st. Petersburg 30 years later the Empress Elizabeth remembered this wonder and asked the architect Rastrelli to integrate it into this arco sello palace lavish parties were held there at the time of Elizabeth and Catherine but also all of their successors to the throne the amber room went through the centuries Wars and revolutions but in 1941 Germany declared war on Russia the rise of the Nazis was fast and the same year they invaded the city of Pushkin where the palace of Sarco sello is located they remained there three and a half years within 36 hours the panel's of the Amber Room were dismantled and sent to coningsburgh Germany the Nazi regime said it was essential to do everything necessary to return this masterpiece to its homeland Germany fortunately the majority of works of art had been put away before the invasion in January 1944 the Russian armed forces broke through the blockade of Leningrad a spectacle of desolation was before them the palace had been partially destroyed in turn German cities suffered massive bombings the Soviet army entered Germany the Amber Room was dismantled in a rush by the Germans and first hidden in the basement of a castle then evacuated far from the combat zone its location remains unknown coningsburgh castle was left to ruin [Music] at the end of the war Allied forces found many works of art stolen by the Nazis but not the Amber Room [Music] the USPTO does touch that lien there is laws that all that was kept of this room were some pieces that had been evacuated to Siberia with the collection from the Amber Room you're not a star citizen is called switcheroo believe we're on a CB mr. summer colleagues for the reconstruction we have the following documentation loss it was Vanya photos taken before the war and small pieces of amber belonging to the chamber which helped to love what they do internal fish because always somewhat summer companies from Oakland first they showed us the color everything you see here is artificially colored it all this was cut under microscope for that fiscal area only in 30 or 230 las peñitas problem the method is as follows on the inside it's hollowed out and below we put gold foil if I came obras on in this way although all the elements are flat they appear to have a relief effect [Music] on April 10th 1979 the Russian Council of Ministers resolved to recreate this masterpiece a donation of 3.5 million dollars from the German company roar Argos AG allowed to create a scientific research centre which took care of the study restoration and conservation of the Amber Room [Music] in 1997 some pieces were found in a private collection in Germany and returned two years later by the minister of Germanic culture in Russia well hidden or destroyed by bombing the mystery of the Amber Room remains intact and many assumptions have been made without any success to find it it remains a beautiful challenge for treasure hunters on May 31st 2003 st. Petersburg celebrated its 300th anniversary the Russian President in the presence of many heads of state including the German Chancellor unveiled the Amber Room to the world it had been fully restored or should we say completely redone twenty-five years of work and six tons of amber allowed for this miracle Catherine the great Empress of all the Russia's was very fond of gems especially diamonds for her accumulating them was a way of marking her power but also a real pleasure in the game [Music] she would say oh I would like to play cards by putting diamonds at stake it reminds me of the tales of the Thousand One Nights [Music] the most outstanding jewels of the treasure of the Czar's were gathered and produced during the reign of catherine ii but nevertheless her successors also excelled in the accumulation of jewels purchased at great cost or sometimes given as gifts as with the strange diamond named shah a half-century later this diamond adorned the throne of the great moguls and it is the Shah of Iran in 1829 who hastened to give it to the Tsar as a gift to make amends for the devastation of the Russian embassy in Tehran and the assassination of griboedov its ambassador the gift was accepted and allowed for conflict to be avoided it is a large stone the purity of the engravings of the names of former owners from the 16th and 17th century seems impossible to attain on the hardest material that exists the diamond [Music] after grandeur comes decadence the people are hungry power escapes nicholas ii the last of the czars the treasure falls into the hands of the Bolsheviks Lenin declares that it must be preserved and that all the treasures born from the oppression of workers and who until now were the exclusive property of the dominant classes must be opened and accessible to these same workers the treasure of the czars was exhibited in museums thus a government commission was responsible for evaluating and separating objects of lesser artistic value which were auctioned off at the time of the Russian Revolution much of the crown jewels and jewelry of the imperial family were transferred to Moscow where they were inventoried for the first time in a very scientific manner as of 1922 before that some were separated they chose to retain only the jewelry that had historic character stones and most famously the regalia that is to say symbolic objects of power they were then kept in Moscow as a national treasure however another part of the jewels tiaras badges decorations jewelry miscellaneous things were sent to Christie's and were part of the many Soviet sales organized like this one in 1927 in London and it's true that many pieces were sold on this occasion today some are located in collections notably in the United States but sometimes it still happens that some of these pieces reappear on the art market in November 2006 in Geneva the Sotheby's auction house was selling a jewel from the Imperial collection for me it's something special because it's a diamond necklace from the Russian collection of Russian imperial family this dates from between 1760 and 1780 that's to say under the reign of Queen Catherine the Great I can tell you that my colleague and I neither of us knew exactly what we would see the customer put the case on the table upon opening it it was extraordinary because we immediately recognized what it was a shock but it was completely unexpected it was a huge shock for both of us because for someone who works in this business and especially who was a historian of jewelry to come across something like this happens once in a lifetime [Music] the gems of the treasure of the Czar's vectors of divine light fed the power of the monarchy for centuries while fascinating their subjects [Music] [Music] destiny makes men disappear as powerful as they may be but the jewels remain is this not a form of immortality [Music] you you

Channel: Voillot Patrick

Views: 455,447

Rating: 4.6728306 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, gemmologist, gemstone, precious stones, gemmology, Patrick Voillot, pierre précieuse, jewelry, stone, movie, tv, frenchtv, jeweler, prices, million dollars, expedition, mine, mining, Place Vendôme, Kremlin, treasure, Treasure of the Russian Tsars, Tsars, Soviets, history, Emperors, Russia, Rasputin, Tsarina, Nicolas II, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, crown, diamonds, Golconda, Diamantina, Brazil, India, Orloff, Amber Room, St. Petersburg, Baltic

Id: ZpHy5XnL9RI

Length: 51min 44sec (3104 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 14 2019