A uncommon pink diamond is going on show in France for the first time since it was stolen virtually 100 years in the past to the day – the last time it was proven to the public.
The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone recognized as the “Grand Condé” was pilfered in an in a single day raid on the Château de Chantilly in October 1926 and hid in a hollowed-out apple.
The diamond – one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution – was recovered a few weeks later when a hungry maid at the resort in which the thieves were staying took a chew of the apple.
It will once again be on show in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly until 3 January.
The museum’s director Mathieu Deldicque said that while the apple story may sounds far-fetched, it was extensively coated by newspapers at the time.
Deldicque has confronted questions about whether the exhibition may be tempting destiny, particularly given the string of heists on European cultural establishments in the previous 12 months, including the daring daylight theft of jewelry from the Louvre museum in Paris.
While he declined to reveal to CNN how much the diamond was insured for, he famous that in depth educational research into the properties of the diamond had taken place to make it uniquely identifiable.
The outcomes of this evaluation, as properly as beforehand unseen archive materials about the gem’s historical past and theft, kind half of the exhibition, according to the museum.
Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally uncommon and usually promote for tens of tens of millions of {dollars}. The highest price ever fetched for one at public sale was $71.2m (£53.6m) in 2017, according to Sotheby’s.
The precise origins of the Grand Condé stay a thriller.
It was first talked about in 1740 in an stock of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, drawn up following his death, the Château de Chantilly said.
It then grew to become half of the assortment of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, the spouse of French King Louis Philippe I, and then her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale.
He bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which now owns the Château de Chantilly, 50km (31 miles) north of Paris, along with hundreds of artworks and manuscripts which grew to become the Musée Condé assortment.
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