Ok im gonna try and make this simple. I love history and want to add history to my commercial games. I have a pic from around 1916-1919 of the young russian prince and was wondering if I am able to use the pic in my games? There is no more russian court so I cant imagine who if anyone would own the rights.

Due to the date of the painting, it is before copyright laws existed, so as far as I am aware it is in the Public Domain, therefore can be used in your commercial game, however be sure to double check that the painting was from this era, as if painted from and after 1923, then more research on your part is required, (death of the painter for example will have alot of influence on whether it is still protected under copyright law)

Sadly they were all killed before 1923 so I dont think that is a issue, however if you click on the pic it does talk about copywrites a bit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Nikola...evich_of_Russia
Its an actually pic so wasnt sure.

It basically re-establishes what I said in my previous post. due to the fact that all of these pictures are exceptionally old, and the photographer is most likely dead, it means that you are perfectly able to use these photo's in your game

Perfect! thats what I wanted to know! ty