Sophia Schliemann in 1874 wearing a diadem from the Treasure of Priam smuggled out of Troy

Everyone, no doubt, remembers Agatha Christie's remark that it is good to be an archaeologist's wife, since the older a woman grows, the more interesting he finds her. Sophia Schliemann would perhaps have added: and besides, one may wear the freshly discovered treasures.

In 1874 Sophia, the wife of Heinrich Schliemann, was photographed in a great golden diadem from the so-called Treasure of Priam, which the archaeologist had only just unearthed in ancient Troy. Schliemann had, in fact, concealed it from the Ottoman authorities and smuggled it out in secret: the find became known only when Sophie Schliemann began appearing in society in antique gold jewellery plainly not purchased at an antique shop on a whim.

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Sophia Schliemann in 1874 wearing a diadem from the Treasure of Priam smuggled out of Troy

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