Romania Still Seeking National Treasury Held by Russia for More Than 100 Years

Russia holds billions in gold and historical objects it agreed to safekeep in 1917

The USSR kept Romania’s Pietroasele Treasure for decades (National Museum of Romanian History)

When World War I broke out in 1914, most European nations quickly entered the fray. Romania did not, remaining neutral until 1916. After entering the war, though, Romania’s gold reserves and royal treasures would end up in Russia, where much of them remain.

Romania was literally and figuratively amidst warring empires when the war began. It bordered Austria-Hungary, one of the Central Powers, on the west, and Russia, part of the Entente, or Allied, Powers, on the east. Romania’s history with both was checkered. Russia occupied and invaded Romania several times in the 18th and 19th centuries while both Romania and Hungary long laid claim to Transylvania.

Then there were family ties to both sides. On the throne when the war started, Romanian King Carol I, and King Ferdinand I, who became king when Carol died in October 1914, headed a branch of the House of Hohenzollern. German Emperor Wilhelm II headed the other Hohenzollern branch. Meanwhile, Ferdinand’s wife, Marie, was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and cousin to British King George V.