Grand Condé pink diamond goes on show a century after apple heist
A nine-carat, pear-shaped pink diamond known as the Grand Condé is going on public display in France for the first time since its theft almost 100 years ago. BBC
The naturally pink stone will be shown at the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly, about 50km north of Paris, from 17 October until 3 January. The château is presenting the showing as an exhibition titled The Pink Diamond. Château de Chantilly
The display brings together scientific analysis intended to make the diamond uniquely identifiable and archive material about its history and theft that has not previously been shown.
The diamond is one of few French royal jewels to survive the French Revolution. It was first recorded in 1740 in the inventory drawn up after the death of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé. It later belonged to Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, wife of French King Louis Philippe I, and then passed to her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, Duke of Aumale, who bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which owns the château.
It was stolen in an overnight raid on the château in October 1926. The thieves hid it inside a hollowed-out apple. It was recovered weeks later when a maid at the thieves' hotel bit into the apple concealing it.
Pink diamonds are among the most valuable coloured stones. The highest auction price ever paid for a pink diamond was $71.2 million in 2017, according to Sotheby's.
