Esterhazy book collection
An Agreement to return the Esterhazy book collection to Austria, signed on September 21, 2012 in Moscow, has been ratified by the Federal Law № 42-FZ of 05.04.2013.
The book collection of the Esterhazy family consists of unique XV-XVIII century publications in theology, astronomy, history, philosophy, medicine, science, art, law and linguistics in English, Aramaic, Latin, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Greek, Hebrew and other languages.
The collection was taken from Austria to the Soviet Union in 1945 by one of the Red Army units. It should be noted that on October 7, 2005 Austria returned a copy of the "Flying Mercury" sculpture by Giambologna (cast in 1783) to Russia. The sculpture was taken from Pavlovsk Palace Museum in 1944 by the Nazis.