The Florentine Diamond is on public display again after a century. A Habsburg family secret lay hidden in a Canadian vault

For more than a century, the Florentine Diamond existed mainly as a mystery. Now the 137.27-carat stone is lying in a room at Quebec’s Musée national des beaux-arts, visible once again to the public after disappearing from view.

The Habsburg family claims ownership of the diamond. Its uncertain status had fueled speculation among historians, thriller writers and television producers. Had it vanished during the collapse of the Habsburg Empire? Had the family secretly sold it? Or had a servant stolen it?

The family secret emerged at the end of 2025, when Karl Habsburg, grandson of Austria’s last emperor, approached a German journalist in Paris. The journalist was working on a story about the recent Louvre jewelry robbery, but Karl had another revelation: the Florentine still existed and had been kept in a Canadian vault.

According to Karl, Zita, widow of the last Austrian emperor, Charles, smuggled the diamond into Canada in “a brown leather suitcase” while fleeing the Nazis after Austria’s annexation in 1938. Before his death in 1922, Emperor Charles had reportedly asked her to keep its location secret for a hundred years, for security reasons.

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in a brown leather suitcase

Karl said the diamond should be shown publicly once its existence had been disclosed. “The exhibition is a sign of recognition that our family was saved in Quebec while fleeing the Nazis,” he said in a statement. Other Habsburg jewels from the vault are also on display, but the Florentine is the centerpiece.

The champagne-yellow stone has green undertones and is about the size of a walnut. Experts say it has few natural-diamond equals. Its unusual double rose cut means it does not sparkle extravagantly, but appears to glow, especially in the candlelight that illuminated it in earlier centuries.

Its earlier history is also contested. Like all diamonds mined before the eighteenth century, it is believed to have come from India’s Golconda mines. One account says the Portuguese seized it during a raid in India. Another says it was cut for Charles the St...

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The exhibition is a sign of recognition that our family was saved in Quebec while fleeing the Nazis