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It was a gem of a family secret for more than 100 years.
Descendants of Austria’s royal family have revealed that a missing treasure, a large diamond dating back to the House of Medici whose mysterious whereabouts inspired several movies and books, has actually been kept safe in secret since 1918.
The Habsburg kin kept mum about the historic Florentine Diamond for decades, but broke their vow of silence to divulge that the jewel was always hidden inside their vault in Canada, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, 64, the grandson of fleeing Emperor Charles I, said that as his family’s dynasty came to an end at the conclusion of World War I, his grandfather fled the nation with the royal jewels secretly in tow.
Among the treasures was the 137-carat Florentine Diamond, a pear-shaped jewel that was originally owned by the Medici family, the rulers of Florence.
It had long been speculated that the diamond had been stolen, recut and lost forever, with several films and novels born from the mystery since the jewel vanished in 1918.
Habsburg-Lothringen, however, revealed that the family hid the diamond from the public eye, per Charles’ wife, Empress Zita, who carried the diamond to Canada in a cardboard suitcase and only told its location to her sons, Robert and Rodolphe.
The two brothers were instructed not to disclose the diamond’s location for 100 years, instructions that they passed on to their own sons before they passed away, the Habsburgs told the Times.
“The less people know about it, the bigger the security,” Habsburg-Lothringen said. “Over the years, I am sure all of us has been asked at one time or another [about the diamond].”
“For me, I was not even aware of the existence of the diamond until recently so it was easy to answer those questions honestly,” he added.
It was Robert and Rodolphe’s sons who informed Habsburg-Lothringen about the diamond’s location, with the family choosing to break their silence now that 100 years have passed.
The clan said they want the Florentine Diamond and other jewels from the Habsburg’s to be put on display in Canada, which took them in following their exodus from Europe in World War II to escape the expanding Nazi regime.
Christoph Köchert of A.E. Köchert jewelers, which once served as Austria’s imperial court jewelers, examined the diamond and vouched for its authenticity, according to the Times.
