The reappearance of the Florentine Diamond

A fortnight ago there was the really amazing announcement by the Imperial House of Austria that, contrary to widespread belief, one of the Habsburg family treasures, the famous yellow diamond known as the Florentine, had not been lost or stolen, nor recut, but had survived thanks to the forethought first of Bl. Emperor Charles I who reclaimed it from public display

in 1918 and took it with him into exile, and then of his widow Empress Zita who took custody of it after his death in 1922. Having kept it, and other family jewels, including a bejewelled badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece, with her in exile in Spain and then Belgium, she took then in a cardboard suitcase to Canada at the beginning of the Second World War. There she left the small suitcase in a safe deposit box with a bank. When she retuned to Europe in 1953 the jewels remained in the Canadian bank. Two of her younger sons were the only individuals to whom she confided the whereabouts of the items, asking they remain hidden until after the centenary of the Emperor’s death. Now the sons of these two Archdukes, together with the head of the Habsburgs, Archduke Karl, have reclaimed the suitcase and revealed its contents.

Quite apart from the historic interest of the Florentine and the other jewels the story is an eloquent tribute to the Empress Zita as a devout Catholic widow, who mourned her husband for almost sixty seven years, always sombrely dressed in black, and guardian of not merely what was left as a tangible inheritance following the expropriation of their assets by the Austrian and other successor states after 1918, but of the traditions and heritage of the Habsburgs. A truly remarkable woman.

I first saw the story online in The Independent at 137-carat diamond missing since 1919 revealed from in Canadian bank

A friend sent me the link to the original account from the New York Times whose journalist accompanied the Archdukes, and which may be seen at The Florentine Diamond Resurfaces After 100 Years in Hiding

Art Net also had a report on the rediscovery which is available at The Hunt: The Mysterious Fate of the Florentine Diamond

Wikipedia has a history of the diamond at Florentine Diamond, which includes the two stories of its origin. They are arguably not irreconcilable, and the idea that the jewel once belonged to Charles the Bold is an attractive one, in that it was through the marriage of his daughter and heiress Mary to Maximilian of Austria that the Habsburgs secured their prominence in European affairs.

The Emperor Karl League of Prayers - the Gebetsliga - which is in itself well worth supporting, has an online article about the rediscovery at Habsburg Florentine Diamond Reemerges

The history of the jewel and of the carat system for weighing such stones is discussed in The Ancient Secret Behind the Carats of the Florentine Diamond