The Tsarina's lost treasure : Catherine the Great, a golden age masterpiece, and a legendary shipwreck

Summary/Review: A rivetinghistory and maritime adventure aboutpriceless masterpieces originally destined for Catherine the Great. On October 1771, a merchant ship out of Amsterdam,Vrouw Maria, crashed offthe stormy Finnish coast, taking her historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The vessel was delivering a dozen Dutch masterpiece paintings to Europe's most voracious collector: Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.Among the lost treasures wasThe Nursery, an oak-paneled triptych by Leiden fine painter Gerrit Dou, Rembrandt's most brilliant student and Holland's first international superstar artist. Dou's triptych was long the most beloved and most coveted painting of the Dutch Golden Age, andits 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 foundVrouw Maria,upright on the sea floor and perfectly preserved.The Tsarina's Lost Treasuremasterfully recounts the fascinating tale ofVrouw Maria'her loss and discovery'weaving together the rise and fall of the artist whose priceless masterpiece was the jewel of the wreckage. Gerald Easter and Mara Vorheesbring to vivid life thepersonalities that drove (and are still driving) this compelling tale, evoking Robert Massie's depiction of Russian high politics and culture, Simon Schama's insights into Dutch Golden Age art and art history, Gary Kinder's spirit of, danger and adventure on the beguiling Archipelago Sea.