Today I was at a meeting with some important people from our national bank. There, I raised the issue of the Romanian Treasure, which was taken to Russia on the 27th of july 1917, and never returned, except for a small part. The answer I heard was amusing, but at the same time, dissapointing. But, let's not forget, it's not BNR's fault. This answer was given to me under the form of a story in which, during a certain high level meeting, one Romanian official was told that Romania should keep on stressing the fact that when Poland gave it's treasure to Romania, during the Second World War, Romania gave it back. So, that would be a good argument to give to Russia, maybe this way they would sympathise with us. Doubt that.
First of all, when I heard the estimated value of this treasure two weeks ago - 3 billion Eur, I was stupefied. It seemed such a small value for the following:
- 1738 boxes containing Romania's gold reserves (314.580.456 Lei)
- 2 boxes containing the jewels of Queen Maria (7.000.000 Lei)
- 188 boxes containing property belonging to the Romanian National bank - including gold, deeds, deposits, etc. (1.593.762.197,52 Lei)
- 1621 boxes containing cash, jewelry, paintings, and other assets (7.500.000.000. Lei)
As for the other goods, they are inestimable. In other words, there were approx. 91 tons of gold coins and 2,4 tons of gold bullion. This is worth around 10 billion Euro, and not 3, a fact confirmed by national and international experts in numismatology. So, 10 certain billion Euro plus an inestimable value in works of art, documents and other goods, equals? Surely a lot.
And even if we were to ignore the monetary value, it would still be a matter of intrinsic value, artistic value, historic value, and, most important - it's our property!
But, as the people from BNR put it - let's not be naive. I'm sure that all those works of art will not be returned, because in all these years, they must have been scattered throughout the world. The russian state makes reference only to the metal part of the Treasure. The rest is forgotten.
It's a bit late now, so I won't keep on writing too much. The question I want to raise is: Why the hell are we such a weak state? Why can't we just take advantage of what we have, claim what is rightfully ours and set our place as it should be, not just the ass kissers of Europe? And they wonder why the good people leave the country...
I leave you to read some interesting facts about this treasure. Let you decide, like I did, about the situation. I left the BNR discussions with a large grin on my face. It was that of disgust.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Treasure
http://tezaurulromaniei.com/
http://romaniadeieri.blogspot.com/2010/01/tezaurul-romaniei.html
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