The legendary Florentine Diamond, a 137-carat yellow gem long thought lost, stolen, or recut after World War I, has been sitting in a bank vault in Canada for decades and will be shown publicly by members of the Habsburg family, descendants said Thursday.
Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, 64, a grandson of Charles I, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, said the treasure was among jewels taken out of Vienna in 1918 as the Habsburgs fled the collapse of the empire and was eventually placed in Canada for safekeeping when Empress Zita and her children fled Europe during World War II. The family invited a New York Times reporter last month to inspect the gem and other pieces that had long been the subject of rumor and speculation.
“For me, I was not even aware of the existence of the diamond until recently,” Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen said to the New York Times, adding that the jewels had been kept secret out of respect for Empress Zita’s wishes. Zita, he said, told only two people, her sons Robert and Rodolphe, where the jewels were and asked that the information remain undisclosed for 100 years after Charles’s death in 1922. “The less people know about it, the bigger the security,” Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen said.
⚡️Il diamante "Fiorentino", appartenente alla dinastia degli Asburgo che governava l'Impero Austriaco, non è stato rubato o perso nel 1919, poiché la famiglia aristocratica lo ha custodito segretamente per più di mezzo secolo in una banca della provincia canadese del Québec,… pic.twitter.com/8UWVysSJCZ
— Silvio Bertoldi (@SilviusBerthold) November 6, 2025
The Florentine Diamond was wrapped separately from other jewels
At an afternoon viewing at a Canadian bank, the family, which included Karl and his cousins Lorenz von Habsburg-Lothringen, 70, and Simeon von Habsburg-Lothringen, 67, opened a battered suitcase and unwrapped the jewels in yellowed paper. The Florentine Diamond was wrapped separately and could be set into a large jeweled brooch that was among the items, according to the family.
Christoph Köchert of A.E. Köchert jewelers, once the Habsburgs’ imperial court jewelers, examined the stone and attested to its authenticity in a signed document. Köchert cited four factors that convinced him it was the historical Florentine Diamond. The stone fits into its historical setting, its weight corresponds to historical sources (137.17 carats), electronic testing confirmed it was a diamond, and its cut pattern matched representations in historical records. The collection also included a diamond-encrusted Order of the Golden Fleece medal, the house order founded in 1430, which Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen described as particularly meaningful to the family.
Aug. 4, 1923: Italy's claim to the Florentine Diamond, a Hapsburg crown jewel since the 1700s, is denied by the Allied War Reparations Council, which rules the deposed Austrian Empress Zita still holds title to it. The gem hasn't been seen since 1918; its fate remains a mystery. pic.twitter.com/gtmjZEXurP
— 100YearsAgoNews (@100YearsAgoNews) August 4, 2023
The Habsburgs trace ownership of the stone to the Medici rulers of Florence. With the extinction of the male Medici line, the gem passed to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine in the 18th century, and it adorned the crown of Francis Stephen at his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in 1745, scholars say.
For almost 100 years, the fate of the diamond was unknown
For a century, the diamond’s fate was the stuff of legend. Press reports as early as 1921 described it as “missing.” Theories ranged from theft to recutting to sale. When a yellow diamond about half the size of the Florentine surfaced at auction in 1981, speculation flared that it might have been the missing gem.
In the New York Times reporting, Richard Bassett, an associate fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge, who was commissioned by the family to prepare a report on the stone’s history, said the jewels Charles took with him into exile were listed as private property and thus were not subject to the 1919 Austrian law that expropriated Habsburg property remaining in Austria. Bassett said that the legal distinction and the fact that the jewels were outside Austria when the law was enacted help explain why the Habsburgs retained them.
The family recounted a wartime odyssey. After Charles I left Vienna for Switzerland in 1918, Empress Zita and the children later moved to Spain and then Belgium. As threats mounted in Europe in the late 1930s, Zita fled with her eight children, arriving in the United States in 1940 with American assistance, and ultimately settling in a modest house in Quebec, the family said. Zita carried the jewels in a small cardboard suitcase, the family said; the items were then placed in a Quebec bank safe and remained there. Zita returned to Europe in 1953 and died in Switzerland in 1989 at the age of 96.
The Florentine diamond is set to be placed in a Canadian trust for exhibition
The Habsburgs said they want to place the jewels in a Canadian trust and exhibit them in Canada as a token of gratitude to the country that sheltered Zita and her children. The family said there are no plans to sell the diamond and declined to speculate on its monetary value.
According to the New York Times, a spokeswoman for the Austrian government said she was not immediately able to reach someone who could address past efforts to recover the jewels.
A legendary jewel of the Hapsburg dynasty — not seen since 1919 and thought lost, stolen or recut — has actually been safe in a Canadian bank for decades.https://t.co/iLPsz2oFWe pic.twitter.com/uDdDYkKkER
— Maxwell Black (@Coreandor) November 6, 2025
The resurfacing of the Florentine Diamond closes a long chapter of mystery about one of Europe’s most famous gems and opens another about how a private dynasty preserved a priceless piece of history through exile and war. The family said in interviews that the diamond’s reappearance is an “astonishing tribute” to the practical determination of Empress Zita and to the discretion that protected the jewels for a century.
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