A famed diamond with a history stretching back through European royalty has been found in a Canadian bank vault, more than a century after it was last seen in public. The 137.27-carat, pale yellow Florentine Diamond, once a prized possession of the Habsburg dynasty and the Medici family of Florence, was revealed by descendants of Austria's last imperial family to have been secretly safeguarded since the turmoil of the early 20th century. The revelation, first reported by The New York Times on Thursday, 6 November 2025, ends decades of speculation that the historic gem had been stolen, recut, or lost forever following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The diamond's last public appearance was before the end of the First World War. In 1918, as his empire crumbled, Emperor Charles I of Austria had the crown jewels moved to Switzerland for safekeeping amid fears of uprisings. He and his family soon followed, fleeing into exile. After the Emperor's death in 1922, the diamond vanished from public knowledge, sparking numerous theories about its fate. These included rumors that it was stolen by the Nazis, taken to South America, or sold off and broken into smaller stones.

However, descendants of the imperial family have now confirmed the truth. The Emperor's wife, Empress Zita, carried the jewels, including the Florentine, in a cardboard suitcase when she and her eight children fled a Europe increasingly under the shadow of the Nazis in 1940. After arriving in the United States, the family settled in Quebec, Canada. There, the Empress deposited the jewels into a bank vault for security. Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, a grandson of Charles I, told The New York Times, “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.”

A Royal Secret

Empress Zita entrusted the secret of the diamond's location to only two of her sons, Robert and Rodolphe. She instructed them to keep its existence and whereabouts confidential for 100 years following Emperor Charles I's death in 1922, a vow the family has now fulfilled. Before their deaths, the brothers passed the secret to their own sons, ensuring the knowledge remained within a small family circle.

The decision to hide the diamond in Canada mirrors another significant, top-secret wartime measure. During the Second World War, 'Operation Fish' saw the United Kingdom ship vast quantities of its gold reserves and securities across the U-boat-infested Atlantic to be stored securely in Montreal and Ottawa. This historic transfer, the largest known movement of physical wealth in history, was intended to allow the British government to continue funding the war effort even if the country was invaded.

History of the Gem

The Florentine Diamond is believed to have originated from the famed Golconda mines in India. Its documented history begins in 1657, when it was seen in the possession of the powerful Medici family, the Grand Dukes of Tuscany in Florence. When the Medici line died out in 1737, the gem passed to the Austrian Habsburgs through the marriage of Francis Stephen of Lorraine to Empress Maria Theresa. The light yellow stone, with a unique nine-sided, 126-facet double rose cut, became part of the Austrian Crown Jewels in Vienna.

Christoph Köchert, of the Viennese jewellers A.E. Köchert, who were once the official jewellers to the Austrian imperial court, has examined the diamond and attested to its authenticity.

The Habsburg family has stated they have no plans to sell the historic diamond. Instead, they intend to arrange for the Florentine and other family jewels to be displayed in a Canadian museum in the coming years. This act is a gesture of gratitude to the country that provided refuge to Empress Zita and her children during the war. “It should be part of a trust here in Canada,” Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen stated. “It should be on exhibition in Canada sometimes, so that people can actually see those pieces.”