Priceless Diamond, Hidden for a Century

It's the stuff of movies. A priceless yellow diamond, part of Austria's crown jewels, vanishes without trace in 1918 when Charles I, the country's last emperor, flees for his life.

The mystery of the 137.27-carat gem, recovered from India's famed Golconda mines in the 17th century, has inspired several books and documentary films. And that was before the final, remarkable, chapter of its history was revealed.

The truth is now out. And it transpires that the so-called Florentine Diamond wasn't lost, stolen or recut, as had been widely speculated.

It was, in fact, deposited in a Canadian bank vault by Zita, the last empress, during World War II after she and her family fled Nazi persecution.

She told nobody about the diamond's whereabouts, except her sons, who were sworn to secrecy.

Her concern was that it would be stolen or confiscated. She was desperate to preserve one of the last symbols of the Habsburg royal family, arguably the greatest dynasty of modern history, that had ruled the Austro-Hungarian empire.

She was thinking long-term, very long-term. She instructed the sons, and their descendants, to say nothing about the Florentine Diamond until a century after the death of their father, Charles I, in 1922. By then, she hoped, the turmoil and upheaval would be over.

The secret was passed from her son Otto von Habsburg (who died in 2011, aged 98) to his son (her grandson) Karl von Habsburg, age 64, who is an Austrian politician and former member of the European Parliament.

It was Karl who, finally, revealed the secret of the Florentine Diamond to the New York Times, which published the story last Friday (7 November).

Quite why the revelation didn't happen in 2022, at the end of the 100 years of silence, isn't yet clear.

But at last we know what happened to the diamond.

As the Austro-Hungarian empire crumbled, Charles I took the gem with him into exile, initially to Swiss villas, one of them overlooking Lake Geneva, and then to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where he died in 1922.

Zita moved back to Switzerland after his death, then to Spain and Belgium. Fearing she and her eight children would be persecuted, imprisoned or worse as the Nazis rampaged through Europe, she then fled to the US in 1940 and from there to Canada.

With her she carried a small, sturdy though unremarkable cardboard suitcase. It contained a number of jewels including the Florentine Diamond.

As we now know, she went on to deposit the gem at a bank vault in Quebec, the city where she and her family remained until the war was over.

Despite her royal lineage she was, by this time, financially challenged. But she never considered cashing in the gem.

She later returned to Europe, and spent the last decades of her life in a Roman Catholic old-age home.

She died aged 96 in March 1989, taking the secret of the Florentine Diamond with her to her graves (correct, her body was buried in Vienna, and her heart, at her particular request was interred in Switzerland). 

Zita - or Empress Zita of Bourbon-Parma - has been recognized by the Vatican as a Servant of God, the first step to sainthood, for her unwavering faith, resilience and exemplary motherhood.

And what of the Florentine Diamond? The Habsburg family has no plans to sell. The stone will likely go on display in either Canada or Austria.

The diamond will be authenticated and graded, probably for the first time ever. It was already stashed away in a bank vault when the GIA was founded in 1931.

As mentioned above, the diamond has already inspired a number of books, most recently Mystery of the Florentine Diamond by Grant Kelly, which was published in February of this year (and which may require a revised second edition).

With so much extra material now available, a movie is pretty much inevitable.

Have a fabulous weekend.