Actress 'accidentally became a detective' and solved a 100-year-old mystery behind museum portraits

From Mona Lisa to Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi's paintings featuring his wife Ida, some of the world's most iconic artworks are inspired by women. However, historical portraits of two women in antique gold-trimmed photo frames remained hidden away in the store room at Brighton Museum for more than a century before jewelry expert Geoffrey Munn revealed them on an episode of BBC's "Antiques Roadshow." The identities of the two women remained shrouded in mystery until an actress and screenwriter named Andreane Rellou (@andreaneoftheisland) walked into the museum gallery and became enchanted by them.

It was her chance to live her own “Sherlock Holmes fantasy,” and she readily accepted the challenge. "I noticed the sign next to the display, which indicated that the identities of the women portrayed were a mystery, despite the efforts of researchers, and asked for information from any visitors who had insights to share. I was struck by the idea that these women's identities were lost, and immediately felt compelled to look into it more," Rellou told Newsweek. According to an Instagram video posted by Rellou, the museum acquired these two portraits from an unknown curator. They were supposedly owned by Lady Ellen Thomas of Preston Manor and made by Peter Carl Fabergé, the Russian jeweler famous for his ornate Easter eggs, as per The Smithsonian.

So, when Rellou returned to London, she went on a quest to unravel the identities of the women in question. She went through historical archives and photographic records of upper-class women from the past and ended up solving the mystery. In a July 27-dated TikTok video, she shared how she became an “accidental detective,” while expressing her excitement at being featured in media reports.

In the two-and-a-half-minute video, she recounted how she wasn't expecting to come across the two mysterious women when she visited Brighton Museum with her sister for a special exhibition. After spotting them in diamond and square-shaped frames, she read the plaque that said that the museum hadn’t been able to solve the “Fabergé identity” mystery. Already a fan of books on Egyptology, as well as, mysteries, Rellou took it as a challenge.

At home that evening, she used “fashion history” to deduce that the woman in the pink square frame belonged to a wealthy family in the 1880s, judging by her hair and clothes. Within about four hours of research, she figured out that the woman was Marie Perugia, wife of Leopold de Rothschild, who was “one of the wealthiest men of his time,” according to Newsweek.

The discovery of the other woman’s identity took a little bit more time. Using forensic techniques, she compared lots of different faces from royalty and the upper class with hers, before figuring out her name. The woman in the purple diamond-shaped frame was Sophia of Prussia, Queen of Greece and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The museum staff was flabbergasted at Rellou’s investigative skills, and so were the people who watched her TikTok video.

“This feels like the Elle Woods of historical sleuthing,” commented @lottie_a74. Others encouraged her to write a book based on this mystery and she loved the idea. @mavpa52 lauded her with the message, “Great job finding it and a bit sad tbh, these women were famous yet 'unknown,'” to which Rellou replied, “How sad to have status and power and yet be instantly forgotten while the men around you (husbands, sons, fathers) are still remembered and celebrated!”

After solving the Fabergé mystery, Rellou is all set to venture into another historical project in which she will unearth the stories of The Three Graces named Aglaia Ionides, Marie Spartali-Stillman and Maria Cassavetti, who were Anglo-Greek models and artists who significantly influenced the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, per Newsweek.

“Women can be so easily forgotten in history,” she said in the TikTok video, “It makes me so happy to have helped out with the names of these faces.” Expressing her gratitude over the entire episode, she wrote in the caption, “Thank you so much @BrightonMuseums for letting me live out my Sherlock Holmes fantasy!”

You can follow Andreane Rellou on TikTok and Instagram to stay updated with her history and mystery projects.