Mystery and history: when did Catherine the Great purchase the Lyde Browne collection?

Abstract

Abstract Documents preserved in the Russian State Historical Archives shed light on the acquisition by Empress Catherine II of the renowned collection of classical sculpture assembled by the antiquary Lyde Browne (d. 1787) – its purchase, arrival and first display in the pavilions of the imperial summer residence in Tsarskoe Selo near St Petersburg. The date for the sale, once assumed to have been 1787, is most widely accepted as 1785, or, as recently suggested, 1784. In fact, there are two dates – 1783 and 1784 – as established by Catherine’s payments (a total sum equivalent to £22,630) for the sculptures as delivered. The archival lists show considerably more items than does the catalogue of Browne’s collection from 1779, while the dispersal of Catherine’s collection of antiquities by her son, Paul I, a partial export to Poland, the formation of the Imperial Hermitage Museum, and later events all contribute to the complex history of the Lyde Browne sculptures in Russia.