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Grand Conde pink diamond returns to Chantilly display
BBC News··6h ago
France's nine-carat Grand Conde pink diamond is back on public display at the Conde Museum in Chateau de Chantilly until January 3. Thieves stole it in October 1926, hid it in a hollowed-out apple, and lost it weeks later when a hotel maid bit the fruit. The pear-shaped stone is among few royal jewels that survived the French Revolution.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Visitors can see the stone at Chantilly through January 3.
- Museum study materials aim to make the diamond uniquely identifiable if stolen again.
- The show includes archive material on the 1926 theft.
What's Happening
- Director Mathieu Deldicque said the apple recovery story was widely reported then.
- He declined to disclose the insurance value amid recent European museum heists.
- The Louvre jewellery robbery was among recent cases he was asked about.
A Jewel With Royal Owners
- The gem appears in a 1740 inventory of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Conde.
- It later belonged to Queen Marie-Amelie and Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale.
- He bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which owns the chateau 50 km north of Paris.
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