A rare and exquisite yellow Florentine diamond, once thought lost or stolen, has reappeared after 100 years, ending decades of speculation about its whereabouts.
The nine-sided double rose cut yellow diamond, also known as the Florentine diamond, weighs 137.27 carats and is part of the Habsburg dynasty, once spearheaded by Charles I and his wife Empress Zita.
As the First World War was coming to an end in 1918, Charles I and his family fled to Switzerland in exile from Vienna. The family’s collection of jewels had previously been sent there as a safeguarding method but one piece, the prized Florentine diamond (thought to have been worn by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy when he fell in the Battle of Nancy in 1477) seemingly disappeared.
Where has the Florentine diamond been?
The allure of this missing diamond has intrigued collectors and enthusiasts for decades; with many gemologists believing it had been recut to conceal its identity (something many fears is what has become of the recently stolen diamond jewels from the Louvre). Now, a descendant of the Habsburg dynasty, Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, has finally unveiled the story of its whereabouts.
As it transpires, the diamond was not lost, stolen or recut but has, in fact, been safe in a Canadian bank vault. After their exile to Vienna, Empress Zita later fled to Canada with her eight children and settled in Quebec. She is said to have carried the precious family jewels with her in a small cardboard suitcase. She returned to Europe in 1953, but the jewels remained in Canada.
“I assume that the little suitcase went into a bank safe, and that was it,” Habsburg-Lothringen told The New York Times. “I have the feeling that she was very glad that some important objects of the family are something that she saved. That was historically very important for her.”
The empress told only her sons Robert and Rodolphe of the diamond’s whereabouts and expressly requested for its location to remain a secret for 100 years after Charles’s death in 1922.
The brothers passed the information through the generations to select members of the family, and Habsburg-Lothringen had only recently learned of the diamond’s existence from his cousins.
Where is the diamond now?
The authenticity of the diamond has been verified by one of Austria’s Imperial Court Jewelers, based on the historic descriptions and the 4Cs of diamonds. As the empress’s vow has now been upheld, the family will display the diamond, alongside a collection of other rare and precious gems, in Canada.
