For years, staffers at an English museum wondered about the identities of two women in a pair of Fabergé photo frames. Now, thanks to the amateur detective work of a museum visitor, the mystery has been solved: The women are Sophia of Prussia , the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and Marie Perugia , the wife of Leopold de Rothschild. Geoffrey Munn , a fine jewelry specialist for Antiques Roadshow , rediscovered the frames in storage at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery about five years ago, per a statement from the museum.
At that time, Munn confirmed that the purple and pink frames, as well as several other small objects, were made by Peter Carl Fabergé , the Russian jeweler famous for his ornate Easter eggs . Though Munn was able to find tiny inventory numbers and Fabergé seals stamped on all the items, nobody could identify the women in the two black-and-white photographs, as Country Life reported in 2020. The Fabergé frames went on display in 2021.
Soon after, actor and filmmaker Andreane Rellou visited the museum with her sister. “As we wandered around the museum, my sister and I saw the beautiful Fabergé display,” she recalls in the statement. “I noticed the sign next to the display, which indicated that the identities of the women portrayed were a mystery, despite the efforts of researchers, and asked for information from any visitors who had insights to share.
I was struck by the idea that these women’s identities were lost, and immediately felt c.