Famed Florentine diamond Found in Canada After Century-Long Disappearance
A legendary diamond, the Florentine Diamond, has been located in Canada after being missing for nearly a century. The diamond was part of the Habsburg dynasty’s collection and was hidden in a bank safe in Quebec after the family fled Europe during World War II.
The diamond’s history stretches back centuries, potentially owned by Charles the Bold and the Medici family of Florence before becoming a prized posession of the Habsburgs. In 1940, Empress Zita, wife of charles I, fled with her eight children and the jewels-including the diamond-in a cardboard suitcase, eventually settling in Quebec.
“My grandmother felt very safe – she could breathe ” Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, a grandson of charles I, told the New York Times.
Empress Zita instructed that the diamond’s location remain secret for 100 years after Charles’s death in 1922, sharing the details only with her sons Robert and Rodolphe, who later passed it on to thier own sons.
Speculation about the diamond’s fate ran rampant over the decades,including theories it was stolen by Hitler,recovered by American troops,or sold by the Habsburgs as their empire declined. Other theories involved the stone being recut and sold in South America or the United states.
Christoph Köchert of AE Köchert, Austria’s former imperial court jewellers, confirmed the stone unearthed in Canada is “the genuine, historical ‘Florentine Diamond’.”
The Habsburg family intends to display the diamond at a canadian museum in the coming years and has stated it is not for sale, declining to disclose its estimated value.
