French auction house Aguttes, which previously sold stolen from The Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA), the original of the decree of Peter II, will not cancel the deal. This was announced by the auction house.
"The Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property conducted an investigation against us. He informed us that there are no grounds for canceling the sale and the case is closed," Sophie Perrin, director of the Department of books, manuscripts and valuable documents at Aguttes, told RIA Novosti.
As reported by EADaily, at the end of October it became known that the original decree, stored in The Russian Military Historical Archive (RGVIA) was replaced by a copy. We are talking about the "Decree of Emperor Peter II in The Military Collegium on the removal of Famintsin from the post of commandant of St. Petersburg and the appointment of Prince G. A. Urusov in his place. September 9, 1727." The Moscow Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began checking on the disappearance of the historical document.
After a while it turned out that the document was put up for auction by the French auction house Aguttes with an initial price of € 1-1.2 thousand. As a result, a valuable historical document was sold for € 3.12 thousand. The lot card on the auction house's portal stated that "this is a very rare military decree of the tsar who died at the age of 14."
The Russian Embassy in Paris sought to cancel the transaction and demanded that the document be returned to RGVIA.