A riveting history and maritime adventure about priceless masterpieces originally destined for Catherine the Great.
On October 1771, a merchant ship out of Amsterdam, Vrouw Maria, crashed off the stormy Finnish coast, taking her historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The vessel was delivering a dozen Dutch masterpiece paintings to EuropeтАЩs most voracious collector: Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. Among the lost treasures was The Nursery, an oak-paneled triptych by Leiden fine painter Gerrit Dou, RembrandtтАЩs most brilliant student and HollandтАЩs first international superstar artist. DouтАЩs triptych was long the most beloved and most coveted painting of the Dutch Golden Age, and its loss in the shipwreck was mourned throughout the art world.
Vrouw Maria, meanwhile, became a maritime legend, confounding would-be salvagers for more than two hundred years. In July 1999, a daring Finnish wreck hunter found Vrouw Maria, upright on the sea floor and perfectly preserved. The TsarinaтАЩs Lost Treasure masterfully recounts the fascinating tale of Vrouw MariaтАФher loss and discoveryтАФweaving together the rise and fall of the artist whose priceless masterpiece was the jewel of the wreckage.
Gerald Easter and Mara Vorhees bring to vivid life the personalities that drove (and are still driving) this compelling tale, evoking Robert MassieтАЩs depiction of Russian high politics and culture, Simon SchamaтАЩs insights into Dutch Golden Age art and art history, Gary KinderтАЩs spirit of, danger and adventure on the beguiling Archipelago Sea.