The Royal Seal Heist of 1906

Picture the Bulgarian shores of the Black Sea in the early 1900s, a time when the elusive monk seal still graced the coastlines with its rare presence. Fishermen along Cape Kaliakra went about their daily business, casting nets and hauling in their catches—until one fateful day when they hit the jackpot of a lifetime. Instead of the usual fish, they hauled up something far more valuable: a living, breathing, 250-kilogram monk seal!

Cue the chaos.

Not ones to miss a golden opportunity, the fishermen quickly devised a plan. With their hefty prize in tow, they sailed straight to Varna, where they turned the poor seal into the Black Sea’s hottest attraction. Word spread like wildfire: “Come one, come all! Witness the marvel of the monk seal! Only a few coins for a front-row seat!” They transformed the main square into an impromptu exhibition, turning curious townsfolk into eager spectators.

But news of the monk seal’s plight didn’t stop at Varna’s borders—it reached the royal palace. And when it came to wildlife, there was no one more invested than King Ferdinand I, Bulgaria’s monarch and self-proclaimed nature aficionado. Upon hearing that a rare monk seal was being paraded around like a circus act, Ferdinand was, in a word, not amused.

“Captivity? For such a rare creature? Unthinkable!” thundered the king, his royal brow furrowed in disapproval. Without wasting a moment, he issued an order: the seal was to be set free at once. Of course, the fishermen weren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of giving up their star attraction. But Ferdinand knew how to handle these things. With a royal flourish, he handed over a hefty sum of BGN 1,000, ensuring that the fishermen didn’t walk away empty-handed.

And so, in February 1906, amid a mixture of grumbles from the fishermen and cheers from animal lovers, the monk seal was carefully loaded onto a boat and returned to the sea. It was a short-lived, bizarre chapter in Varna’s history, but one that left its mark—quite literally.

As a token of the event, King Ferdinand commissioned a unique memento: a bronze ashtray shaped like a seal standing triumphantly on a seashell. The quirky artifact, a royal nod to his love of nature and his disdain for seal sideshows, still sits proudly in Euxinograd Palace today, a gleaming reminder of the day a monk seal briefly became the most famous celebrity on the Bulgarian coast.

So next time you’re wandering through Euxinograd, keep an eye out for the bronze seal. It’s not just an ashtray—it’s a symbol of a wild day in 1906, when a bunch of fishermen tried to turn a rare sea creature into a ticketed spectacle, and a king swooped in to save the day, proving that sometimes, even a seal can steal the show.

• Newspaper “Svoboden Glas” No. 7/25.02.1906