The unique cargo of the Frau Maria, which was wrecked in 1771, became the subject of a dispute between Russia, Finland, Sweden and Holland.
Whose Frau Maria are you?
The background is this. To replenish the collection of the Hermitage, Tsarskoye Selo and the Winter Palace, Empress Catherine II purchased Saxon porcelain and dishes, objects of decorative and applied art made of bronze and precious metals, and in addition, several hundred paintings by Flemish painters - according to experts, among them there may well be paintings by Rembrandt. Whose Frau Maria are you?
On an autumn night in 1771, a strong storm overtook a Dutch two-masted sailing ship near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea in the territorial waters of Sweden (now Finland), where the ship found its final refuge.
For three years, Russia unsuccessfully searched for the sunken ship. For three years, Catherine II equipped expeditions to search for lost treasures. At the very least, this indicates the empress’s confidence that the valuable cargo was not damaged - as experts say, cargo of this kind could have been hermetically packed in lead flasks and filled with wax.
The president of the charitable foundation “Saving National Cultural and Historical Values” Artem Tarasov says that “usually these were leather pencil cases, they were stuffed into barrels, the barrels were rolled up hermetically and filled with molten wax.” If this is true, then the value of the treasures underwater could reach 2 billion euros by today's standards, which will undoubtedly become one of the most valuable underwater finds in the world.
Only in 1999, Finnish divers managed to discover the ship at a depth of 41 meters, 11 kilometers from the island of Jurmo. Now this place is marked with buoys and is carefully protected from black archaeologists. Three years ago, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Rosokhrankultura got involved in resolving the issue.
The lifting of the ship itself, in principle, is not difficult at all, since it lies at a shallow depth, but the whole question is who owns the valuable cargo.
In Finland there is a law that if a ship and its cargo remain on its territory for a hundred years, then the country will have full right to them. Finland’s centenary will be in 8 years, but even now the Finnish government does not give permission to lift the ship, citing the statute of limitations. However, Russian experts do not back down and consider the sunken treasures to be Russian national heritage. In Helsinki this moment there is no such large amount of money to carry out work to raise the vessel, and their main task is to stall for time until 2018.
The fate of the ship Frau Maria
It turns out that the Dutch cargo sent for Russia sank off the coast of Sweden and is currently located on the territory of Finland, which has not been there for a hundred years.
ship odyssey « Vrouw Maria" began in the winding canals of Amsterdam. Wood merchant and collector Gerrit Braamkamp has died at the age of 71. In the last 30 years of his life, he spent almost all his savings on purchasing the best European works of art. Gerrit Braamkamp lost his wife at an early age, and this collection became a kind of replacement. Therefore, he directed all his energy and love to collecting paintings.
After the death of the collector, representatives royal families people from all over Europe came to his estate, hoping to acquire at least a small part of the famous collection. A public auction was organized in July 1771. 12 thousand tickets for the event were sold, and the auction itself was attended by about 20 thousand people. Among those wishing to purchase paintings from the Braamkamp collection was the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. She told the ambassador in The Hague to go to an auction and buy some canvases for her own collection. The empress's representative offered the highest price for the paintings, and as a result he received a priceless selection of paintings. Diplomatic representative Russian Empire resolved the issue with the delivery of paintings to St. Petersburg. In order to get to the Hermitage, the canvases had to cross the Baltic Sea. This was risky, but no one had any idea how unsuccessful it would be.
Back in 1771, Catherine II wanted to receive her collection as quickly as possible and preferred the sea route to the long process of delivery by land.
Empress Catherine the Great
lifting diagram and the vessel "Vrouw Maria"
The Finnish side plans to schooner « Vrouw Maria"can be raised no earlier than 2017. The Russian side expects to carry out the work already in 2010. According to Finnish experts, the project to lift from the bottom of the Baltic schooners « Vrouw Maria"will cost 80 million euros, with half of this amount going to conservation ship and the creation of a historical museum. Negotiations on the ownership and raising of the ship between interested departments have been ongoing since 2007.
Ship history « Vrouw Maria"is still far from its end. According to experts, it will take years to raise money to raise the vessel. The situation with the rights to the priceless cargo has baffled many lawyers. One thing can be said with certainty in the coming years sunken ship will not reveal his main secret.
Technical data of the schooner “Vrouw Maria”:
Length - 24.5 m;
Width - 7 m;
Photo: screenshot from the website "Russian Club in Tampere", www.tampereclub.ru
Off the coast of Finland lies the sunken ship Frau Maria with the treasures of Catherine II worth $1.5 billion. Russia has repeatedly offered to help raise the flute, but so far Suomi is in no hurry to get the treasure, citing the high cost of the operation, and perhaps waiting for the 100th anniversary of its independence in 2017.
After the publication of the material “Paintings for the Empress, a Beauty for Her Favorite” in the popular historical magazine “Your Privy Advisor” (No. 5 (23) May 2016), a concerned reader wrote a request to the Russian Ministry of Culture asking for clarification of the authorities’ position regarding the fate of the ship. The department responded that Russia has little chance of becoming the owner of cultural property, but Finland is not yet going to lift the valuable cargo.
"Fontanka.fi" decided to find out who will own the collection of unique masterpieces of art by Dutch masters, acquired by Catherine II two centuries ago.
European treasures for Russian empress
The Dutch industrialist and philanthropist Gerrit Braamkamp, on the verge of death, offered Catherine the Second to buy a unique collection of paintings of three hundred canvases. Braamkamp asked his 17-year-old niece Annabelle to contact the Russian diplomatic mission in Amsterdam so that diplomats would convey his request to the Empress. Catherine could not miss the chance to acquire works by Dutch artists, especially since another famous patron of the arts, the favorite of the French king Louis XV, the Marquise de Pompadour, was also interested in the paintings. Catherine's confidant, Count Vasily Golitsyn, spared no expense on the empress's whim.
As a result, 300 paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Bruegel, Dow, Van Bale, Van Goyen and other masters, were loaded onto the two-masted flute "Frau Maria" (Vrouw Maria). The valuable cargo was carefully packed: the paintings were first placed in boxes made of elk skin, and then placed in lead vessels, sealed with wax. To place all the paintings on board the ship, the deck had to be dismantled. The works of art for the august person were accompanied by the Russian Ambassador to Holland Alexei Shuvalov and Annabelle, who, as they say, even began a romantic relationship during the long voyage.
The ship's journey from Holland lasted almost two months, and only by October 1771 did the Frau Maria reach the territory of Finland, which was then a Swedish province. However, during a terrible storm, the ship hit a rock, and a hole appeared in the ship. The Swedish team, led by a Dutch captain, withstood the elements for almost a week in the hope of saving the ship. They tried to save the valuable cargo, but it was impossible to do this without dismantling the deck. The struggle lasted until one night the ship, stuck on the sandbank, simply slipped off it and disappeared into the depths of the sea. The team, the Russian count and Annabelle escaped, but "Frau Maria" herself has not been seen since then.
The treasure ship was so important for the Russian Empress that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, Nikita Panin, was responsible for its rescue. In October 1771, Panin sent a letter to the Swedish government and Catherine's nephew, the King of Sweden, asking for help in returning the cargo. For the next few years, Russian and Swedish diplomats conducted a lively correspondence about the fate of the sunken treasures. The Swedes tried to find the Frau Maria throughout the summer of 1772 to no avail, but the ship was destined to spend the next two hundred years at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
It is quite possible that the ship would have sunk into oblivion if not for the new generation of echo sounders and the persistence of the Finnish diver Rauno Koivusaari, who was lucky enough to discover the Frau Maria.
As Koivusaari himself told Fontanka.fi, he became interested in the Dutch ship after reading a book by Swedish researcher Christian Ahlström about ships that sank in the Baltic Sea. “Of course, a ship full of treasure aroused my interest, especially since no one had been able to find it before,” Koivusaari said. The Finnish diver conducted his own investigation to find out the approximate location of the Frau Maria. “When I realized where this vessel might be, I decided to contact Christian Ahlström and tell him about my guesses,” the diver recalls. The searcher’s calculations turned out to be correct, and Finnish divers managed to find the ship the first time, and the entire dive took about 30 minutes.
The water area of Jurmo Island, as researcher Christian Ahlström writes in his report, is unique, since in this place there is extremely low level salinity of the water, which prevents the development of mollusks that feed on sunken wood. That is why the ship was preserved in almost perfect condition for a vessel that had lain in the water for two hundred years.
First descent to the wreck of the Frau Maria.
Next, the research team was faced with another task: to prove that this is the same “Frau Maria”. While working with the archives of several countries, Professor Ahlström discovered 31 documents relating exclusively to this flute. Thus, one of them indicated a curious defect of the ship: the ship’s anchor was missing one claw, and it was this that the divers discovered during the dive. Divers later recovered several artifacts from the sunken ship: a metal ingot and a typical 18th-century clay smoking pipe. With cargo, everything turned out to be more complicated: ships transporting goods for the royal crowns were exempt from all taxes. Along the way, such ships often carried out other transportation, which could be reflected in customs documents. After inquiries into the archives, Professor Ahlström received a response from Denmark: in 1771, the Frau Maria paid a tax while passing through the Øresund Strait, which separates Denmark and Sweden. Customs document confirmed that the ship was also carrying zinc ingots. There was no doubt left - it was "Frau Maria"!
As the discoverer, Koivusaari could lay claim to one of the most promising treasures in the country's history, but the state, represented by the country's Maritime Museum, started a legal battle with the diver. Finnish authorities stated that according to the 1963 Relics and Antiquities Act, both the ship and its cargo belonged to Suomi. “At that time, the Maritime Museum simply took control of the location of the ship. Without going into details, I will say that they behaved unethically. The only thing left was to go to court. I would like to note that the people with whom I was suing then, no longer work in the department,” Rauno Koivusaari shared his experiences. As a result, the ship turned out to be the property of the Finnish state, and the diver was only awarded a badge of honor.
Our treasure?
The discovery of the ship of the Russian Empress was learned in Russia. For several years, Moscow and Helsinki have been conducting diplomatic negotiations. One of the experts brought in from the Russian side was deep-sea exploration specialist Andrei Shpigel, CEO LLC "Baltspetsflot"
The President of Russia instructed the government to deal with the issue of return historical heritage to my homeland. The fate of "Frau Maria" was dealt with by the now disbanded department - Rossvyazohrankultura, which was responsible for the protection of cultural heritage and the search for missing artifacts. Andrei Shpigel recalls that at the same time several people in Russia became interested in this topic, and the generator of the process was the president of the charitable foundation “Saving National Cultural and Historical Values” Artem Tarasov, one of the first millionaires in our country.
Following the meeting in Finland, where Russia expressed its interest in the wreck, a special bilateral conference was organized in Moscow. Spiegel was then invited to develop a project to raise the vessel. Russian experts proposed two options: to lift the ship itself or only its cargo. Both, according to Spiegel, are quite realistic.
“Rosokhrankultura (appeared as a result of the dissolution of Rossvyazohrankultura in 2008. - Ed.) stated: the cargo belongs to Russia, but we will not insist that it be considered only Russian. Moreover, the Russian side proposed to assemble an international consortium of all interested parties to lift this sailboat, to open the hold, in order to ultimately reveal the most unique paintings to the world,” said Andrei Shpigel.
The Finns refused the Russian proposal for international cooperation, citing the high costs of the operation. Then the Finnish museum authority Museovirasto said that a five-year project to study the vessel using special cameras would cost almost 4 million euros. Later this amount grew to geometric progression, has not yet reached 50 million euros.
According to Spiegel, interested Russian businessmen were ready to provide the necessary funds, and the Hermitage - experts in the restoration of the paintings. At the same time, for the Russian side it was not important where the vessel would remain after the lifting: in Russia or in Finland, says a specialist in deep-sea work.
Negotiations continued at the next meeting in Finland, but it left more questions than answers. As Andrei Shpigel recalls: “When we were taken to the place where the Frau Maria is located, I saw that there were “dead anchors” at the bottom, and cables and mooring buoys came from them. This means that this place is constantly being accessed by some “The ship is underway and work is going on there.”
All talk even about the raising and return of the vessel by the Russian side stopped in 2011, when Rosokhrankultura was disbanded. This information was confirmed to Fontanka.fi in Finland. According to senior adviser to the Ministry of Culture and Education Satu Paasilehto, negotiations were actively conducted in 2007 - 2009, and after 2010 came to naught.
For six years, the Finns have not changed their opinion regarding the possible raising of the ship, however, the explanation is still confusing: “The decision to raise the ship cannot be made until it is scientifically proven that this operation will not affect the cultural and natural heritage region. Moreover, it is necessary to prepare a plan for the conservation of the vessel and further actions, as well as find financing. At the moment, preserving the vessel, as they say, in situ (in place - author's note) is considered the best solution," the country's Ministry of Culture said.
The water area of Yurmo Island has been declared protected natural area. As Satu Paasilehto explained, “the ship is located on the territory national park and is protected by a number of laws, it is also under the protection of UNESCO and is part of the European network of protected sites (Natura 2000). "Diving is prohibited in this area, and all deep-sea work requires a special permit," the adviser noted. When asked, Whether the Finns are working to lift artifacts from a sunken ship, the department assured that most of the cargo is still at the bottom of the sea.
Photo: Paasilinna
At the site of the Frau Maria wreck, all deep-sea work is prohibited without permission from the Finnish side
The Finnish Ministry of Culture believes that the ship belongs to the state: “From the moment of its opening, the ship is de jure the property of Finland.” "Frau Maria" has been in Finnish territorial waters for more than 100 years, that is, according to Finnish law, it is the property of Finland. And this fact is not subject to discussion,” the official concluded. IN Russian Ministry cultures agree with the position of their Finnish colleagues: “The cultural property on board is subject to the laws on the cultural heritage of Finland and its civil legislation. The Russian side does not have the right to carry out any work in the territorial waters of Finland without the consent of the Finnish partners, therefore any Russian actions to survey and lifting the vessel without the consent of the country's authorities would be unlawful."
According to Spiegel, the main recovery efforts at the Frau Maria wreck site could begin after 2017, when Finland celebrates its 100th anniversary as independent state, and the ship, without any “buts,” will become the property of the country. The press service of the Russian Ministry of Culture assured Fontanka.fi that no negotiations on raising the ship or its return are currently underway, however, “taking into account the historical value of the sunken objects for Russia, the Ministry of Culture is ready to support joint projects with the Finnish side.”
There is a treasure, there is no law
Adding to the darkness of the whole story is the fact that international maritime law does not regulate the ownership of historical sunken ships and their contents. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) said that the Convention on the Removal of Wrecks does not provide for work with historical ships. IMO spokeswoman Natasha Brown explained that the issue of ownership of the Frau Maria relates to the national laws of Finland, in whose waters she sank. The IMO advised us to contact UNESCO, but the organization did not clarify the situation with cultural heritage.
As Ulrike Guérin, a specialist in the UNESCO program for the protection of underwater cultural heritage, stated to Fontanka.fi, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, future fate the sunken ship will be decided by the laws of the country where it sank. "It is worth understanding that international law stronger than national legislation, but the fact is that there is no international legislation that would regulate the ownership of wrecks," Gihren said.
As Gihren emphasized, the 2001 UNESCO Convention aims to protect historical shipwrecks and their contents. “In other words, “a vessel found under water must not be operated for commercial purposes, and artifacts found on board cannot be used for personal gain,” UNESCO explained.
The Convention, as explained by UNESCO, calls on interested parties to carry out Scientific research, do not prohibit access to the ship, ensure beneficial use of the ship for everyone, which includes museum exhibitions, educational work, or even virtual tours. Finland and Holland are now preparing to ratify the international document. According to Ulrike Gihren, after this Russia will be able to cooperate more closely with these countries on all issues related to Frau Maria.
The issue of raising the Frau Maria and examining its cargo has not progressed over the past six years, as negotiations between Finland and Russia are not ongoing. Suomi considers the sailboat his own, but is in no hurry to lift it from the Baltic bottom. In Russia, it seems, they have lost all interest in values. International organizations, which could become an arbitration court, admit that their conventions cannot in any way establish the owner of the sunken flute. We can only hope that “Frau Maria” is not destined to rest forever at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and the dream of Empress Catherine II will someday come true - the most valuable paintings can be seen in the Hermitage, in Russia.
Quite recently, during a storm, a mysterious sculpture washed up on the shore of the Baltic Sea in Zelenogradsk (this is the former Prussian Kranz): a beautiful female bust without a head. Upon closer examination, it turned out that the gift was from depths of the sea may be the “Wounded Amazon” - an ancient Greek sculpture dating back to the 5th century BC. But where did she come from on the Baltic beach? Experts believe that the rarity could have been washed ashore from the brigantine Frau Maria.
The ship, which was carrying unique exhibits for the Hermitage at the request of Catherine the Great, sank to the bottom in 1771. The location of the ship's sinking is known. Why hasn't it been raised yet? It turns out that Russia and Finland cannot decide who is the rightful owner of this huge chest of treasures, the value of which is estimated at $2 billion.
The Frau Maria was caught in a storm in November 1771 and sank off the coast of Sweden (today the territorial waters of Finland). More than 200 years passed until, in the summer of 1999, a group of Finnish divers accidentally discovered a ship underwater covered with a layer of mud and silt. Upon closer examination, it became clear: this ancient vessel is “Frau Maria”. The Russian charitable foundation “Saving National Cultural and Historical Values” immediately became interested in the news.
Rarities of Catherine II
“The schooner Frau Maria is located 11 kilometers from the Finnish island of Jurmo,” says the head of the foundation, famous philanthropist Artyom Tarasov. – Researchers have established that the valuable cargo was not damaged in the crash because, before loading the museum exhibits into the hold, they were carefully packed in boxes made of elk skin. Then they were placed in lead vessels, with wax poured on top. Therefore, there is a very high probability that the paintings of the great masters have been preserved. In total, there may be about 300 paintings on board the Frau, as well as a collection of Saxon porcelain, gold and silver figurines.
less left three years to resolve the question of who owns the treasure. Why are Russian diplomats silent? Or is $2 billion too much for our country?
If you follow the archives, the brigantine set sail from Amsterdam on August 12, 1771. Frau Maria called at every port - in Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The precious cargo was designated "diplomatic mail." The Frau Maria encountered a storm when it left the port of Turku. Having run into a rock, the ship began to sink. At first, the team tried to save the treasures - the sailors jumped into the water, holding sealed tubes with paintings in their hands. According to some reports, they took 6 or 8 canvases from the brigantine. However, their further fate is unknown.
“We were unable to find the names of all the dealers in Amsterdam who bought paintings for Catherine II,” Artyom Tarasov continues his story. – But we still established the names of four buyers. And this made it possible to determine: they bought 27 paintings by famous Dutch artists of the 14th–17th centuries.
Thus, it would seem that the main issue has been resolved - the fact of finding unique cultural works on board the sunken ship has been confirmed, and now the operation to recover the treasure can be fearlessly begun. But unexpectedly a difficulty arose.
Dividing up underwater billions
After it became known that at the bottom of the Baltic Sea there were valuables worth billions of dollars, a whole line of people immediately lined up to get them. The divers who discovered the ship were among the first to try to claim rights to the Frau Maria's cargo, but the Finnish court rejected them. Sweden followed suit - the waters in which the brigantine sank belonged to it 200 years ago, and therefore the treasures are Swedish property. True, the absurdity of such a statement turned out to be so obvious that, after thinking, the Swedes abandoned their claims. Holland tried to do the same thing - they say the ship flew under the Dutch flag, and the place of origin of the cargo was the Netherlands. However, Russian archivists showed a document confirming that Catherine II paid for both the cargo and the chartered ship. This was enough to reject all the attempts of the Dutch.
But with Finland’s claims to the cargo, the matter turned out to be much more serious. According to its legislation, a lost ship located in Finnish territorial waters cannot be damaged, moved or manipulated in any way without the permission of the National Finnish Ministry of Antiquity. Thus, according to the law on ancient monuments, the ship and cargo belong entirely to Suomi.
– But Russia, being the legal successor to the property of the Tsarist Empire after 1917, has the right to present its claims to the cargo of the schooner Frau Maria. At the same time, the option of trial in international courts cannot be ruled out, believes Honorary Lawyer of the Russian Federation Alexander Ostrovsky.
Negotiations on raising the ship between Russia and Finland have been ongoing for the seventh year. In 2009, it was announced that the schooner would remain at the bottom until the question of who exactly it belonged to was resolved. Since then, no obvious progress has occurred.
Finland is stalling for time
According to experts, the cost of the operation to raise the Frau Maria could be about 80 million euros. This is not much, considering the jackpot at stake. In addition, the work is not very difficult. The ship stands at a depth of 40 meters in a vertical position, and its hull is only 1.5 meters buried in the bottom sediments. The fact that the ship is standing on its keel is due precisely to the bulky cargo in the hold, filled with lead barrels with paintings. The safety of the hull was ensured by the low-salt water in the bay and the absence of currents.
And there is also no fungus in this place. The strength of the wood from which the Frau Maria was made is so high that an attempt by one of the Finnish divers to drive a nail into the frame of the Frau was unsuccessful. Therefore, from a technical point of view, the probability of successfully lifting the ship to the surface is quite high.
Today, two well-known maritime companies specializing in raising sunken ships have expressed a desire to participate in the tender for lifting the cargo of the Frau Maria. Both of these companies - SMIT Internationale and Mammoet Salvage - participated in the recovery of the nuclear submarine Kursk in 2000. Potential investors, including Russian businessmen, have already declared their readiness to finance the work.
So, maybe it's time to start them before harsh sea currents and storms break the ship into pieces? Moreover, time passes, and this is where the greatest danger lies. According to the Finnish Antiquities Law of Finland, if a sunken ship and cargo remain in its waters for 100 years, then after that they will belong exclusively to the Finnish side. And trying to challenge this in court will not be possible: Finland has not signed the UNESCO International Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, and therefore has the right to be guided only by its own laws. The centenary of the Finnish Republic falls in 2018. Thus, there are less than three years left to resolve the issue of who owns the treasure. Why are Russian diplomats silent? Or is $2 billion too much for our country?
The charitable foundation “Saving National Cultural and Historical Values” was created in December 2003. The chairman of the fund, Artyom Mikhailovich Tarasov, a famous politician, businessman, and the first legal Soviet millionaire, initiated the rescue of the precious cargo of the schooner Frau Maria. The first successful project of the Artyom Tarasov Foundation is the return to Russia of the small diadem of the House of Romanov. This crown is decorated with 822 diamonds and 70 rubies. It was made in 1890 by order of Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich Romanov.
As for the Russian Foreign Ministry, it appears to have lost interest in the rise of Frau Maria. Neither the Ministry of Culture nor the State Duma. The famous Russian philanthropist Mikhail Slipenchuk is ready to finance the rise of Frau Maria. However, to carry out the work, an agreement at the interstate level is first necessary. Alas, the statesmen remain silent. I would like to hope that the rescued treasures from the Frau Maria will still take their places in the Hermitage, albeit with a delay of several centuries.
The ship "Frau Maria" sank off the Åland Islands, in the waters of modern Finland
Fans of maritime archeology probably know the story of the ship Frau Maria, which sank off the coast of Finland in the 18th century. Presumably it carried paintings and other valuables purchased by order of Catherine II for the Hermitage in Holland. During a night storm, the ship lost its steering and sank, and paintings by Dutch artists, of great value, remained at the bottom. In the 20th century, whoever looked for the treasure of the Frau Maria, and only in 1999 the ship was discovered...
By a special decree of Catherine II in 1771, Holland carried out a whole campaign to purchase objects of art to replenish the funds of the Hermitage and Tsarskoe Selo. Thanks to the actions of Russian diplomats, the empress became the owner of an impressive collection of Meissen and Saxon porcelain, gold and silver figurines, and most importantly - large quantity paintings by the most famous Flemish artists (according to some sources, at least 300). The valuable cargo was well packed (the canvases were first wrapped in leather, then placed in lead tubes, the free space was filled with wax and hermetically sealed) and sent to St. Petersburg on a two-masted merchant ship called the Frau Maria. It is the foresight typical of those times when transporting valuable cargo by sea that allows us to hope that the paintings have been preserved and are subject to restoration.
Gerard Dou. Portrait of Rembrandt's mother. Presumably "Frau Maria" also transported paintings by this Dutch painter
Presumably there were paintings by Flemish painters on the ship.
List of paintings on board the Frau Maria
1. Hendrik van Balen (1575-1632) “Young Jesus Christ”, written together with Bruegel.
2-4. Gerard Terborch (1617-1681) "Musician with a Guitar", "Girl with a Dog" and "Officer Writing a Letter".
5-6. Isaac Gedik (1617-1678) “Room with spiral staircase" and "Woman at the table."
7-8. Gerard Dou (1613-1675) “The Girl in Yellow” and “At the Surgeon’s Appointment.”
9. Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) “The Village on the River Bank.”
10. Willem Joseph Lakay (1738-1798) “Artist with student.”
11. Leve “Peasants at a wedding.”
12. Johannes Lingelbach (1622-1674) “Ship at anchor.”
13. Gabriel Metsu (1629-1669) “Servant with a hare in her hands.”
14. Frans van der Meen (1719-1783) “Gentleman with a glass.”
15. Adrian van Ostade (1610-1685) “The Man at the Table.”
16. Paulus Potter (1625-1654) “The Great Ox Cart.”
17. Abraham Storck (1644-1708) “City on the Rhine.”
18. Adrian van de Velde (1636-1672) “The Herd at Rest.”
19. Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) “Jug with Flowers.”
20-24. Philips Wauerman (1619-1668) “Fight”, “Old House”, “Scene with the Hunter”, “Boy with a Horse”, “By the River”.
25. Hermann Zaftleven (1609-1680) “Landscape with hunters.”
26. Hendrik Martens Zorg (1611-1670) “Interior: table with pheasants.”
27. Two paintings by unknown artists.
Perhaps there was also a “Triptych” by the artist Gerard Dou on board - its total size is 9 square meters. If it is indeed discovered, it could become the most expensive work of art in the world. Experts also believe that there are paintings by Vermeer and Rembrandt on board the ship.
Catherine turned to her Swedish “colleague” for help in raising the ship, but the Scandinavians gently refused. Gradually, talk about “Frau Maria” dried up, and she was forgotten for a long time.
Frau Maria, sunken off the Åland Islands
The story of the ship was unearthed by treasure hunters. The famous Finnish sea treasure seeker Rauno Koivossari searched for the Frau Maria for many years, but found it only in 1999. He realized that this was the same ship from the name on the tablet that he picked up from the bottom.
The Finnish government did not enter into an agreement with Koivossari, who proposed to raise the ship and divide the treasure “fraternally,” but issued a decree on the conservation of the ship. Now it is under the protection of the Finnish authorities. Finland's motives are understandable, because according to its law, everything that has lain in Finnish waters for more than 100 years belongs to it by right. The catch is that Finland itself is not yet 100 years old, and will only turn 100 in 2018. Apparently, the Finnish government was waiting for this date until the Russians found out about “Frau Maria”.
Frau Maria Raising Project
The Russian government organized a commission on the Frau Maria case, which developed a project for raising the ship. Coordination with the Finnish side is not an easy matter, but the Finns have their own interests. But it seems that Finland gave permission to raise the ship... in 2017 (there is some kind of catch here, right?). At the same time, there is, of course, a logical explanation why in 2017, because “Frau Maria” is located in protected waters, God forbid it disturbs the ecological balance of the local nature, so preparation requires careful calculations, time and... money. 80 million euros.
Here's the story. In Dmitry Bykov’s program on City FM, Tarasov said that the commission will negotiate with the Finns to raise only one tube in order to understand whether something has survived and is subject to restoration. For more details you can read, for example,
The Russian enthusiast who “excavated” Rauno Koivossari with his find is the same Artem Tarasov. He is a member of the state commission organized to raise the Frau Maria with its cargo, and he was also involved in archival research. He is probably the most informed person on this historical issue. On Thursday and Saturday he will be in Moscow to present his book about “Frau Maria”; he will be personally present on October 28 at 17:30 at the “Young Guard” in Polyanka and on October 30 at 14:00 at the “House of Books” in Medvedkovo. So all questions can be asked to him personally at the meeting.
