Valentin Ceauşescu

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Valentin Ceauşescu (born 1948) is the adopted son of Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena Ceauşescu. The adoption, in March 1948, was part of the Romanian Workers' Party campaign for party members to adopt war orphans. Unlike other members of the Ceauşescu family, he was not involved in politics and worked as a nuclear physicist at the Institute of Atomic Physics (IFA) in Măgurele, a job which he still holds as of 2006.

Valentin Ceauşescu did his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest. In 1967, he went to pursue his studies in physics at the Imperial College London, in the United Kingdom. On July 3, 1970, he married Iordana (Dana) Borilă, the daughter of communist leader Petre Borilă, but Ceauşescu disagreed with the marriage and Valentin's wife and their child were expelled to Canada. In the 1980s, he was also involved in the managing of FC Steaua football team, which in 1986 won the European Cup.

In 1989, following the Romanian Revolution, he, together with the other members of the Ceauşescu family, was arrested, but he was freed after no real charges were brought against him. Also, his collection of 50 paintings by Romanian masters, engravings by Francisco Goya, and hundreds of rare books were confiscated at that time. When he asked them back, the Romanian authorities argued that there are no documents which prove that he is the owner rather than the Romanian state and Valentin Ceauşescu sued them.