A trove of storied imperial gemstones is emerging from a cloak of secrecy and legal fog this week to go on display in Canada, the improbable country where they lay hidden for more than 80 years.
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they → emerge → years
The Habsburg family jewels were smuggled out of Europe at the outset of the Second World War by Zita of Bourbon-Parma, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, and presumed lost for decades.
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jewels → smuggle → decades
Only last year did her grandchildren reveal that, all along, they had been stashed in a vault in Quebec – the same province where Zita and her children sheltered during the war.
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Zita → reveal → war
It has been a long journey for an array of jewellery that adorned Medicis and included the 137-carat Florentine Diamond, through the chaotic dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, where they will star in a public exhibition opening Friday.
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they → adorn → exhibition
The family wanted to display the treasures in Quebec City, the quiet Catholic government town where the former imperial family found a fitting refuge from their Nazi persecutors.
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family → want → persecutors
“Showing these jewels at the Musée is an expression of profound gratitude to Québec and Canada for welcoming and sheltering my grandmother and her eight children during World War II,” Karl von Habsburg, Zita’s grandson, said in a statement.
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Habsburg → show → statement
The museum show also comes at a time when the Austrian government is awaiting the results of a commission on the legal ownership of the jewels, which it says will determine whether the modern state has a claim to the heirlooms of a family that once ruled its territory.
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that → come → territory
Last November, the remaining Habsburg grandchildren announced that the precious collection would be held in a Canadian trust with Andrew Molson, scion of the Canadian brewing dynasty, as trustee.
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collection → remain → trustee
The family hired eminent British historian Richard Bassett to study the provenance of the jewels and he found the Florentine Diamond, among others, had always remained the personal property of the Habsburgs.
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Diamond → hire → Habsburgs
Meanwhile, as the grandchildren were preparing to reveal the whereabouts of the gems, the Louvre heist in Paris last October massively heightened security concerns.
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heist → prepare → concerns
Anxiety about the safety of the treasures prompted the museum to forgo publicity of its landmark exhibition until the day before its grand opening.
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Anxiety → prompt → opening
For all the hype around the jewels, one of the most striking exhibits on display is the flimsy suitcase Empress Zita used to carry her priceless cargo across the Atlantic – not made of cardboard, as family lore had it, but the somewhat flashier material of crocodile leather.
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lore → use → leather
The great escape began in 1918 with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after its defeat in the First World War.
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escape → begin → War
The newly created Austrian Republic expropriated all Habsburg property in 1919, but the family had already transported their private jewellery to the safety of Switzerland.
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family → create → Switzerland
Empress Zita and Emperor Charles were effectively on the run, until he died of pneumonia on the Portuguese island of Madeira in 1922.
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he → die → 1922
Zita and her children wandered Europe through the interwar period, notably emerging as staunch opponents of the Nazis.
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Zita → wander → Nazis
In retaliation, the Luftwaffe descended on the Belgian castle where Zita had been living at the outbreak of the Second World War.
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Zita → descend → War
Again, the Habsburgs had already fled with their jewels, as a confluence of factors drew them to Quebec.
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confluence → flee → Quebec
It was Catholic, like them, and the children were already being educated in French.
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children → educate → French
Canada’s government welcomed them and arranged for accommodation in the Quebec City area.
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government → welcome → area
Despite their secret bounty, the Habsburgs were cash poor and lived modestly.
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Habsburgs → live → bounty
Zita wore a widow’s black habit and made soup from dandelion leaves.
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Zita → wear → leaves
The family hunted moose and went cross-country skiing.
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family → hunt → skiing
“She felt she had some of the best times of her life in Quebec,” Karl von Habsburg said in an interview on Thursday.
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Habsburg → feel → Thursday
The family eventually left Canada after the war, but the jewels remained in a Quebec vault whose location her children were sworn to keep secret until 100 years after her husband’s death.
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children → leave → death
The Florentine Diamond, especially, developed an extensive lore.
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Diamond → develop → lore
After its disappearance in the 1920s, rumours spread that it had been stolen by a servant and spirited to South America.
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it → spread → America
Truth was stranger than fiction: The stone was wrapped in yellowing paper inside a crocodile-skin suitcase, burrowed deep within a Canadian bank.
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stone → wrap → bank
There are other remarkable treasures in the exhibition, including a diamond and yellow sapphire brooch that the 18th-century Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa wore on “festive sleigh rides, attached to the ribbon of her muff,” and a jewel-studded pocket watch that belonged to her daughter, the doomed Queen of France Marie Antoinette.
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that → be → France
The Austrian culture ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the jewellery, but Karl von Habsburg dismissed any rival claims as “political chit-chat.”
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Habsburg → respond → chat
Jean-Luc Murray, director general of the museum, is treading more carefully.
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Murray → tread → museum
The specter of the Louvre heist has prompted the museum to take extraordinary security measures whose details he would not discuss.
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he → prompt → details
“It hasn’t been easy!” he acknowledged.
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he → acknowledge → ?
