Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Next day Levene returned to the library. He browsed through the Art History section, narrowing his particular interest to the portraits of Russian royalty. These he looked at slowly and carefully. He searched through the elaborate illustrations of the jewelry worn by Ivan the Terrible’s eight wives and found nothing that resembled the description of the brooch. Then he had an idea. An hour later, he found what he sought. It was a rendering of Elizabeth 1 of Russia. The portrait, painted by a royal artist on commission, was of a heavy-set, ornately dressed woman of imperial bearing. 

This particular Elizabeth was the daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine, the mistress he eventually married, but not before their love-child was born in 1709.  Of the two surviving daughters of Peter, she eventually claimed the throne and ruled for 21 years. Elizabeth was formally betrothed to a nobleman but fell in love with a commoner. She was a great collector of jewels of Russia, making the most of her political advantages. Levene read with great interest the next line:

“It was the night that Elizabeth seized power from her regiments that she wore the brooch that dazzled those who looked upon it, so that her opponents easily acquiesced to her demands.”  Footnotes referred him to the “Empress Elizabeth of Russia’s Imperial Brooch”. It was rumored that her lover was made a count and given a security guard in order to carry the huge and heavy jeweled masterpiece around with his Empress as she sat for portraits throughout her reign. 

And there, in the portrait was the very jewel, the “lost” brooch, with the inscription of its name beneath the portrait: Empress of Russia Imperial Brooch! His heart leaped. This was the mysteriously lost and found wedding gift that Ivan Grosny bestowed upon his fourth wife, Anna Koltovskaya. The artist had captured the transparent quality of the stone and enhanced its gleam through the crown of surrounding diadems, each oval followed by a cluster of tiny pear-shaped diamonds. The setting was barely seen.

Koltovski sat forward, hungry to hear the results. “What, in two weeks? My God, please Mr. Levene, tell me all you find. Have you brooch?”

“No, but it is available to you. Please be patient while I explain my findings.” Levene placed a newspaper article between them. “You likely know about the recent death of the Grand Duchess Maria Vladimorovna, until a few months ago the head of the Russian Romanov dynasty. She had, while still a young woman heard of the missing jewel after reading the story of Ivan Grosny and Anna Koltovskaya. She had a search conducted among the peasantry of Belarus and Ukraine, but nothing was ever found. According to her cousins and the whole family in general, that brooch was the subject of conjecture and world-wide search for many years." He paused to note his client's rapt attention.

"Maria’s sister was Leonida Georgievna, the dowager Empress of Russia. He father was a descendant from biblical times. He was greatly interested in obtaining as many diamonds as possible in his lifetime. He appointed agents to conduct a worldwide search for the jewel. That search has continued actively for almost one hundred years, supposedly without any reported success. Of course, Leonida was a hunted woman for awhile due to her husband’s political problems with the Russian parliament, but she returned to Georgia in the Soviet era, where she managed only to survive, thanks to the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, who protected many well-known figures in trouble with the newly established authorities in Russia.

 When the Romanov dynasty was ousted in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and many of its leading members murdered by the Bolsheviks, she escaped. She divulged only to her sister the whereabouts of the piece and swore her to silence."

“Yes, yes. Did anyone find it, finally?” 

“There is more history, yet. Your brooch has a name and a presence.” At this point, Levene set before Koltovski the book of portraits of the Russian monarchs and pointed to the brooch on the blue pillow, just below the likeness of Empress Elizabeth 1 of Russia.

“I believe this is what you are searching for”, Levene said proudly. Koltovski fixed his eyes upon the likeness in the portrait. He gasped, his eyes wide, shocked at the size and beauty of the brooch he recognized.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed.

“As you can read beneath the portrait, the brooch has carried the name “Elizabeth of Russia Imperial Brooch”, though no one knows how or where she got it. Only the Romanovs could afford to protect or even to possess such a piece. You were right in your estimation of the size and value of the emerald and its surrounding diamonds. Just over one hundred thirty-six carats of weight. It’s worth perhaps one half billion in cash, in today’s market.”

“This perfectly fits the description I was given many years ago. It is true, my family has searched for this gem for hundreds of years.”

“Yes, Mr. Koltovski, but you were not forthcoming to me about who may have possessed it. In fact, you may have contributed to the myth of its location. You, a Romanov of impure ancestry were persona non grata to their fortune, and to revenge your family you let them think the stone was in Shapirov’s possession. In fact, he never had possession of it. The brooch has never left its homeland. At this moment it resides in the same safe location, where it has lingered since shortly after the death of Elizabeth 1. Shapirov eventually learned of its whereabouts and visited the vault where it lies, but was not foolish enough to pretend it was his. That jewel belongs to all of Russia."

 “Magnificent!” Levene exclaimed. He tried to imagine the rendering as the actual gem.  His next thought: Where did she get it? Last seen in 1574 by its recipient, Levene could only guess it was stolen, then somehow returned to Russia. It was actually possible the jewel might not have passed from hand to hand during the intervening centuries, as Koltovski insisted. His hunch was validated next day when Moses Schwartz, the diamond merchant, returned his call.

“Shamus, I have good news today for you.  If the painting was fairly true to reality, the general cut of the rare gem was in the form of a square - a cushion cut, with truncated corners. Though the emerald was large and flat on top, it still gives off a quiet blue fire. The hue,  maybe like the color of ocean waves. This gem, Levene, is magnificent! How I would give a trip to Russia just to set my old eyes on it.  But let me tell you where it is…”

Levene studied the painting into the hours of the night, and fell asleep imagining he owned it. He tried to imagine how the Empress would have displayed it. The jewel would have been set upon the Elizabeth’s coronation dress for all to admire, but for the portrait the glittering object with its surrounding diamonds lay on a blue velvet cushion just to the right hand of the Empress Elizabeth, as if she basked in its glory, not the other way around. The brooch in the painting exactly matched the description that Koltovski gave Levene.

Exactly two weeks later, Levene’s newest client sat before him in his office, waiting expectantly. He seemed thinner, perhaps more underfed and worried about the outcome of the mission he’d entrusted to Levene, but he brightened when Levene began to speak.

“Mr. Koltovski, if I may call you that, I have very good news. My search for the brooch has been rewarded with success.”