Mystery of the century: The “Florentine Diamond” found in Canada
The long-lost Florentine Diamond has resurfaced after a century in obscurity. The gem, once owned by the Medici and Habsburg dynasties, had been kept in a Canadian bank vault all this time, reports Kazinform News Agency citing Only Natural Diamonds.
Weighing 137.27 carats and featuring a rare double-rose cut with 126 facets, the diamond hails from India’s Golconda region — the ancient heart of diamond mining. Its first recorded owner, Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici, possessed the jewel by the mid-17th century.
After the Medici line faded, the Florentine passed to the Habsburgs, becoming a symbol of imperial power. In 1745, it adorned the crown of Francis Stephen of Lorraine — husband of Empress Maria Theresa and founder of the Austrian branch of the dynasty.
At the end of World War I, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, Emperor Charles I secretly ordered the royal jewels moved from Vienna to Switzerland. A year later, they vanished. Theories abounded — from theft to black-market sale.
According to Only Natural Diamonds, the truth turned out to be far simpler. Empress Zita, widow of Charles I, fled the rise of Nazism and took the jewels across the ocean, hiding them in a bank in Quebec, Canada. Only two of her sons knew the secret, sworn to keep it exactly one hundred years after the emperor’s death.
In autumn 2025, Habsburg descendants opened the vault mentioned only in family lore. Inside lay several historical relics — among them, the glowing yellow gem that once crowned an emperor.
The authenticity of the diamond was confirmed by Viennese jeweler Christoph Köchert, a representative of the legendary house A.E. Köchert, which once served the Habsburg court. Experts call the discovery one of the most significant in modern jewelry history.
Earlier, it was reported that eight jewels of "inestimable historical value" belonging to the Royal Collection were stolen from the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre Museum this October in a heist that shocked the world.