A rare pink diamond stolen from the Château de Chantilly in an overnight raid almost a century ago has returned to public view in France. The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone — known as the Grand Condé — is now on display at the château's Musée Condé, in an exhibition that runs until 3 January. It is the first time the diamond has been shown publicly since October 1926, when thieves carried it out of the same castle hidden inside a hollowed-out apple.
Few museum pieces arrive with a backstory quite like this one. According to BBC News, the Grand Condé is one of the very few royal jewels to have survived the French Revolution, and its reappearance marks the near-anniversary, to the day, of the last time the public could see it.
Table of Contents
- A centenary, to the day
- The apple that gave the game away
- Royal blood and revolutionary survival
- A gemstone worth tens of millions
- Security questions in a year of museum heists
- Key takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Sources
- Related coverage
A centenary, to the day
The exhibition opened at the Musée Condé — the museum housed inside the Château de Chantilly, some 50 kilometres north of Paris — on the approximate hundredth anniversary of the theft that took the diamond away. The show combines newly revealed archival material about the gem's history and the 1926 robbery with the findings of extensive academic research into the stone's properties.
That scientific work serves a dual purpose. Museum director Mathieu Deldicque says the analysis was carried out to make the diamond uniquely identifiable — a precaution that will not surprise anyone who has followed Europe's recent spate of museum thefts.
The apple that gave the game away
During the October 1926 robbery, the thieves hollowed out an apple and concealed the diamond inside it — a detail so outlandish that Deldicque concedes it sounds far-fetched. Yet it was widely reported in the newspapers of the day, and the ruse was undone in the most mundane way imaginable: weeks after the theft, a hotel maid at the thieves' lodgings took a bite of the apple and discovered what was inside.
The diamond was recovered, returned to the Institut de France — the body that owns the château and its vast collection of artworks and manuscripts — and then kept largely out of public view for the next hundred years.
Royal blood and revolutionary survival
The Grand Condé's precise origins remain a mystery. Its first known mention dates to 1740, in an inventory drawn up after the death of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé. From there it passed into the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, the wife of French King Louis Philippe I, and later to their son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale.
The duke bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which has held the château ever since. The diamond is described as one of the few French royal jewels to survive the Revolution — most of the crown jewels were stolen in 1792 or sold off by the Third Republic.
A gemstone worth tens of millions
Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare. Stones of this kind routinely fetch tens of millions of dollars at auction, and the highest price ever recorded for one was 71.2 million dollars in 2017, according to Sotheby's.
Asked by CNN how much the Grand Condé was insured for, Deldicque declined to say — a refusal that underlines just how seriously the museum is taking the risk of putting a world-famous jewel back in public view.
Security questions in a year of museum heists
The exhibition opens amid heightened anxiety about museum security in Europe. The past year has seen a string of high-profile cultural thefts, including a daring daylight robbery of jewellery from the Louvre in Paris — a case that has left institutions across France reassessing how they protect their most precious objects.
Displaying a nine-carat pink diamond with a royal pedigree and a famous heist in its history inevitably invites the question of whether the exhibition is tempting fate. The museum's answer is that the stone's identity has been mapped in exhaustive academic detail, making it effectively impossible to fence. Still, the tension between public access and protection — the central dilemma of every great museum — has rarely been on such vivid display.
Key takeaways
- The nine-carat, pear-shaped Grand Condé pink diamond is on display at the Musée Condé in the Château de Chantilly until 3 January.
- It is the first public showing since October 1926, when the diamond was stolen from the same castle and hidden inside a hollowed-out apple.
- A hotel maid recovered the gem weeks later when she bit into the apple at the thieves' lodgings.
- The diamond is one of the few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution; its earliest record dates to a 1740 inventory of the Prince of Condé.
- Museum director Mathieu Deldicque declined to disclose the insurance value, citing the wave of recent museum thefts in Europe, including the Louvre robbery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Grand Condé diamond?
The Grand Condé is a nine-carat, pear-shaped pink diamond, one of the few French royal jewels to survive the Revolution. It is now exhibited at the Musée Condé in the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris.
How was the diamond stolen in 1926?
Thieves took the gemstone during an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly in October 1926 and concealed it inside a hollowed-out apple. It was recovered weeks later when a hotel maid bit into the apple at the thieves' lodgings.
Where can the diamond be seen now?
It is on display at the Musée Condé inside the Château de Chantilly, about 50 kilometres north of Paris, until 3 January.
Why are pink diamonds so valuable?
Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare. Similar stones have sold for tens of millions of dollars at auction, with a record of 71.2 million dollars set in 2017, according to Sotheby's.
Sources
- BBC News — original reporting on the exhibition, the 1926 heist and the museum director's comments
- World Right Now — additional details on the auction record and provenance
