The acquisition of sphinxes at the University embankment in front of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg is credited to Andrei Muravyov, who in 1830 was going on a pilgrimage to holy places. In Alexandria he saw the sphinxes, which were brought for sale. Ancient sculptures made him so impressed that he immediately sent a letter to the Russian Ambassador, in which he proposed to acquire them. From the Embassy the letter was directed to St. Petersburg. There its receiver, Nicholas I, redirected the message to the Russian Academy of Arts. In the end, such a purchase was deemed expedient, but by the time these bureaucratic complications were resolved, the owner had already sold the sphinxes to France. Only because of the French Revolution they at last arrived in Saint Petersburg in 1832.