Hidden treasure revealed after ninety years

Workers renovating a mansion in St. Petersburg have chanced upon a hoard of hidden treasures.

Over a thousand items of silver and porcelain were discovered between the floorboards at the house, which used to belong to the aristocratic Naryshkin family.

Employees of the Intarsia construction company found that many of the pieces were wrapped up in newspapers from just months before the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The police have been notified and experts are due to value the items.

According to police, it is the most significant find of this sort in some thirty years.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 abolished all forms of aristocracy, and large numbers of nobles fled the country, beginning new lives in various countries across the globe.

The Imperial Family itself had hoped to gain asylum in England, but it was not to be, and Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra and their four daughters were executed on 17 July 1918.