Museums and society: The Icon of the Imperial family returned to the Museum-Reserve “Tsarskoye Selo”

March 25, 2016 in the Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoye Selo" was returned the icon disappeared from the Catherine Palace during the Great Patriotic War. Icon of the Mother of God "Quick to Hearken" belonged to the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (brother of Alexander III).

The subject of the historical collections of the museum was given by Gabriele Demming (Germany). She and her sister Ingeborg Schenk inherited the icon after his father's death in 2014. Detailed circumstances of how the museum object turned out to be with him, are unknown to relatives.

Having inherited the icon, the sisters soon began to look for its owner, enlisted the help of well-known German historian Wolfgang Eichwede - Professor of the University of Bremen. It was learned that the object is listed in the "Summary catalog of cultural property stolen and lost during the Second World War".

The icon comes from the historical collections of the State Museum "Tsarskoye Selo", as evidenced by these inventory numbers on it. It is listed in the inventory of the pre-war museum. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War it was not evacuated.

Miraculous Icon of the Mother of God "Quick to Hearken" - one of the oldest icons of the Virgin. According to tradition it was written in the X century, with the blessing of the founder of the Athos Dohiarsky Monastery of Saint Neophytos. Before the icon of the Mother of God "Quick to Hearken" people pray for spiritual enlightenment.

Icon is very revered as among the people, and the members of the Imperial House. Especially it was revered among the family of Nicholas II and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. In 1930s the icon was kept in museum collections, but, most likely, in the reign of Nicholas II was in one of the rooms of the Alexander Palace.