Mementos of the Yusupovs: A Major Dynasty of Collectors

More than their estimates, the history of these objects is what will appeal to lovers of royal or princely family mementos. Thanks to numerous photos, we get an idea of the daily surroundings of this house in Rue Pierre-Guérin (16 th arrondissement), where Felix and Irina Yusupov lived from 1943 until their deaths in 1967 and 1970. This pied-à-terre remained in the family until it was recently sold. What remains of its contents is being sold by Xenia, granddaughter of Felix and Irina, who has lived in Greece for many years. The Yusupov family had an extraordinary destiny. Their origins, according to legend, went back to an ancestor of Yusuf. Khan of the Tatar-Mongol horde of Nogai, known as the Golden Horde, Yusuf developed amicable relations with the Russian Empire and received vast landholdings as a reward for his services. The first and greatest collector of this line, who settled permanently in Russia in the 17 th century, was Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov (1751-1831). In 1778, a…