One of the world's most precious and storied diamonds ended up in a Canadian bank vault

Like many of the world’s most famous diamonds, the Florentine Diamond is believed to have originated in India, in the Golconda mines, which are renowned for producing large and extraordinary diamonds.

F ew gemstones have been laden with the history carried by the Florentine Diamond, according to gemmary.com , a website that curates stories about curates antique and vintage jewelry. The pale yellow, 137.27-carat diamond was once one of Europe’s largest gems, adorning the crowns of emperors and kings.

Most recently, it was among the Austrian Crown Jewels until the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Soon after it became shrouded in mystery, with its whereabouts unknown for more than a century.

However, according to the New York Times , the real story has recently been told for the first time by three Hapsburg descendants. It turns out the precious gem has been in a bank vault in Canada since the family fled here during World War II.

Austrian Empress Zita (Hapsburg) was escaping the Nazi onslaught with her eight children, arriving in the United States in 1940, according to the family. The Empress carried the jewels with her in a small cardboard suitcase, family members told the Times.

With American help, the family traveled to Canada, where they settled in a modest house in Quebec. Eighty-five years later, the family says it wants to display the Florentine Diamond and other jewels in Canada to thank the country for taking in the Empress and her children.

“It should be part of a trust here in Canada,” Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen told the Times . “It should be on exhibition in Canada sometimes, so that people can actually see those pieces.”

The story of the Florentine Diamond goes back to the powerful Medici family of Italy. The diamond’s first owner was the Duke of Tuscany and future Ferdinand II (1610-1670), a member of the ruling Medici family, according to langantiques.com , an antique jewelry website run by a San Francisco jewelry firm.

Despite the Medici family’s best efforts to keep their jewels in Florence, the Florentine Diamond had become part of the Austrian Crown Jewels by 1743, when Maria Theresa of Austria married Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine. This newly alliance created the Hapsburg-Lorraine Dynasty.  The Florentine Diamond was set into a crown for the coronation of Francis Stephen as Emperor Francis I.

The diamond remained a part of the Austrian Crown Jewels until the Hapsburg Empire came to an end after World War One. The Emperor refused to abdicate but agreed to a renunciation of any participation in the affairs of state on Nov. 11, 1918. The royal family sought refuge in Switzerland.

Then, as tensions built across Europe again, former Austrian Empress, Zita, wife of the last Emperor, Karl I (who died in 1922), opposed the growing Nazi threat. Her son, Prince Otto, offered his services to the Austrian First Republic, which was struggling to remain independent of the Third Reich. When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Otto was declared an enemy of the state.

Zita fled with her eight children, arriving in the United States in 1940. The Empress, said family members , carried the jewels with her in a small cardboard suitcase.

The family then traveled to Canada where it settled in a modest home in Quebec.

“My grandmother felt very safe — she could breathe finally,” Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen told the Times about the arrival of the royal family in Quebec. “I assume that, at that stage, the little suitcase went into a bank safe, and that was it. And in that bank safe, it just stayed.”

In 1953, Zita returned to Europe but she left the jewels in the care of the Quebec bank. (She died in Switzerland in 1989 at 96.)

This is where the story picks up today.

Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, 64, a grandson of Karl I, said in an interview with the Times that the secret of the diamond was kept for decades, respecting Empress Zita’s wishes. She told only her sons Robert and Rodolphe about the diamond’s location, asking them as a security precaution to keep it undisclosed for 100 years after her husband’s death.

Before the sons died, reports the Times, they passed the information to their own sons. But for years afterward, the family says it declined to respond to queries about the diamond out of a desire to guard it. “The less people know about it, the bigger the security,” said von Habsburg-Lothringen.

He said he only recently learned of the existence of the jewels from two cousins — Robert’s son, Lorenz von Habsburg-Lothringen, 70, and Rodolphe’s son, Simeon von Habsburg-Lothringen, 67.

All three recently met at the Quebec bank where the diamond and other precious jewels have resided in a vault. They live in Europe. This was the first time they viewed the diamond.

The Florentine Diamond was wrapped separately from the other jewels, but it could be have been set in a large, jeweled brooch, which was among the items. Christoph Köchert of A.E. Köchert jewelers, once Austria’s imperial court jewelers, examined the diamond and attested to its authenticity, reports the Times.

The family now says it wants to display the diamond at a Canadian museum in the next few years. There is no plan to sell the diamond. The family has declined to speculate on the jewel’s value.

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