A 137-carat diamond hasn’t been seen in public since 1919. It had been sitting in secret inside a Canadian bank

The legendary 137-carat yellow gem known as the Florentine DiamondAfter the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, lands long believed lost reappeared.

Now, three members of the former Habsburg imperial family say the legendary diamond was never stolen or lost, but was preserved. hidden For more than a century, according to New York Times.

Once among the most valuable jewels The trace of the diamond after the Habsburg crown faded after the First World War.

In 1918, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, Emperor Charles I, a member of the famous dynasty and the Archduke’s nephew, Franz FerdinandThe King, whose assassination started the war, felt that his reign was coming to an end.

When Bolshevik and anarchist uprisings threatened the monarchy, he took immediate steps to protect the royal family’s most valuable assets.

To protect the treasures of the Habsburg family, Charles ordered the crown jewels to be sent to the Habsburgs. Switzerlandhe and his family were preparing to flee into exile. Among them was a remarkable 137-carat diamond famous for its pear shape, bright yellow color and rich history.

Known as the Diamond of Florence, the stone belonged to the powerful Medici family, who were once rulers of Florence before passing to the Habsburgs after the Medici line became extinct. But when the royal family fled Vienna, the diamond seemed to vanish without a trace, and with it any certainty about its fate.

Rumors evolved over the decades. Some claimed the jewel was stolen or smuggled out of Europe. Others believed it was converted into smaller stones. His disappearance aroused fascination and inspired countless stories, even becoming the centerpiece of novels and movies. flawsWeave fiction around the mystery of the missing diamond.

Now, more than a hundred years later, this mystery has finally been solved. Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen (64), grandson of Emperor Charles I, shared the remarkable story of the precious jewel with the emperor.Times.

The family fled Nazi persecution during World War II and eventually settled here. Canada via the United States.

Habsburg-Lothringen suggested that the “little bag” with which his grandmother, Empress Zita, traveled before arriving in Quebec contained the valuable cargo and went to a safe where “it just remained.”

Zita returned to Europe in 1953 and died in Switzerland in 1986, aged 96.

According to Habsburg-Lothringen, the Empress revealed the diamond’s whereabouts only to her two sons, Archduke Robert and Rodolphe, and instructed them to keep this information secret for 100 years after Charles’ death in 1922.

“I guess he wanted to make sure [the diamond’s whereabouts] wasn’t [disclosed] “All his life,” said Habsburg-Lothringen.

He issued this directive as a security measure during the family’s exile, fearing that revealing the jewel’s location could endanger both the diamond and its descendants.

Throughout their lives, Robert and Rodolphe followed their mother’s wishes and never revealed this secret publicly. Before their deaths, they passed on the knowledge to their own sons and preserved the knowledge within a narrow circle of Habsburg lineage.

This silent chain of trust protected the family’s treasure and ensured that the diamond legend endured for more than a century, Karl said.

The family now wants to display the jewel publicly at a museum in Canada as a thank you for accepting the family. Times, and also refused to speculate on the value of the diamond.

Recent archival discoveries and documents have since confirmed that the diamond was transported to Switzerland along with other imperial valuables and remained in Habsburg hands rather than being sold or lost.