The Imperial Egg
Cases unlock in order, like levels. This is case 57 of 100.
Fontanka Palace Museum, Saint Petersburg, 9:10 pm. In the restoration workshop, the curator discovered that the Winter Swan Egg, an imperial jewel from 1911, is a replica: the rubies are glass.
At 6:05 pm the real egg was sealed under a glass dome on the workbench so the enamel could cure overnight. The workshop only opens with a keycard, and the corridor camera stopped recording for 25 minutes.
It was an SKA game night in the city, and the museum was closed to the public. Only three people had access to the floor. One of them swapped the egg.
The museum library, tall dark wooden shelves, windows looking out on the frozen Neva.
Suspects
Arkady VolkovHead restorer, 61
Tatiana BelovaCurator of decorative arts, 45
Gleb SorokinSecurity technician, 29
The real case
The jewels stolen from inside the Hermitage Museum
Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2006
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
In 2006, an inventory at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg found 221 items missing: jewelry, enamels, icons and imperial objects from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There had been no break-in. The pieces had left little by little, over the years, from the department a curator was responsible for.
The curator had died the previous year, at her workplace, and could not defend herself; her husband was convicted in 2007 of selling the pieces to antiques dealers. The case led to an inspection of every museum in Russia.
The game borrows the theft carried out from within, by a trusted person, over months and without a break-in. The swap for a replica, the characters and the outcome are fiction.
Sources
Case glossary
Words from this case you might not know.
- SKA
- SKA Saint Petersburg, the city's famous professional ice hockey club.