In other cases, like that of PrinceAdam Karol Czartoryski-Borbon, a descendant of Polish royalty now living in London, Nazi German occupation meant the loss of their former palaces and the works of art inside them.
The Sokolov archives were handed over to the Russian authorities by Prince Hans Adam of Liechtenstein in September, allowing a detailed comparison to be made.
Prince Hans Adam bought the archives at auction in London in 1990, and has exchanged them for his own family archives which were seized by Soviet troops from a castle near Vienna in the Second World War.