A map which is worth gold

This is a map of the Balkan Peninsula accomplished by Abraham Ortelius in 1584, after cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi models. Ortelius included the map in his atlas called Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. This copy is one of the 5.000 copies made over time by imprint the sole copper plate used for it. The map is part of a cartographic collection of great documentary value, consisting of 42 medieval and early modern maps, composed around the theme of the Danube and the East-Central Europe. The collection belonged to Aureliu and Lelia Popescu family in Bucharest. Aureliu Popescu was an exquisite diplomat of the Kingdom of Romania for economic affairs, with a prodigious international career. His wife, Lelia, noted in the fine arts, was a talented painter. After the coming of communist regime in Romania, Popescu family suffered greatly. The former old-regime diplomat Aureliu Popescu was sentenced to years in prison and hard labour on the Danube-Black Sea canal. After release from prison, with all properties confiscated, he had sold what he left from his art collections, sometimes for modest sums, in order to survive. Thus, in 1964, the entire collection of maps arrived in Pitesti museum heritage for the equivalent of only 150 USD. In reality, only this map has a market value of at least three times higher.

Map Romania quae olim Thracia dicta made ​​by Abraham Ortelius in 1584, according to the maps of Giacomo (Jacopo) Gastaldi of 1559-1560 Part of the atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, French edition (Theatre of the Universe), printed in Antwerp (1598) Technique: printing from a copper engraving, paper and coloring handmade Dimensions: 50.2 x 36.3 cm (copper engraving) / 53 x 40.4 cm (paper) Scale: 1:2.600.000 Verso: ownership of Arges County Museum (Muzeul Județean Argeș), Inv. no. F 323/566