{{Short description|Historic yellow diamond}} {{Expand German|Florentiner (Diamant)|date=July 2010}} {{Infobox diamond | image = Florentine Diamond aigrette.jpg | caption = Historical photograph of the diamond as part of an aigrette | name = Florentine | weight = {{convert|137.27|carat|g|lk=in}}<ref>{{cite web|last1=McNearny|first1=Allison|title=The 137-Carat Diamond Lost Forever|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-137-carat-diamond-lost-forever|website=The Daily Beast|accessdate=16 March 2018|date=June 5, 2016}}</ref> | grams = | color = Light yellow in colour with very slight green overtones | cut = Nine-sided 126-facet double rose cut | country = India | found = | owner = House of Habsburg-Lorraine }} The '''Florentine Diamond''' is a large diamond, known for its long association with European royalty. A possession of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine since 1737, it was widely thought to have been lost in the aftermath of the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, but was revealed in November 2025 to have remained with the family in secret.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|date=November 6, 2025 |title=The Florentine Diamond Resurfaces After 100 Years in Hiding |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/arts/design/florentine-diamond-resurfaces-hapsburg.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=November 6, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
Reportedly of Indian origin,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mobley |first=Grant |date=2025-06-11 |title=The Florentine Diamond: A Lost Treasure Resurfaces After a Century |url=https://www.naturaldiamonds.com/historic-diamonds/florentine-diamond/}}</ref> the Florentine Diamond is light yellow in colour with very slight green overtones. It is cut in the form of an irregular (although very intricate) nine-sided 126-facet double rose cut, with a weight of 137.27 carats (27.454 g). The stone is also known as the '''Tuscan''', the '''Tuscany Diamond''', the '''Grand Duke of Tuscany''', the '''Austrian Diamond''', '''Austrian Yellow Diamond''', and the '''Dufner Diamond'''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Manutchehr-Danai|first1=Mohsen|title=Dictionary of Gems and Gemology|date=March 9, 2013|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3662042885|page=186|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UX1CAAAQBAJ|accessdate=16 March 2018}}</ref>
== History == === Origins and Habsburg acquisition === [[File:Justus Sustermans 005.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Portrait of Mary Magdalene of Austria with her son, wearing the Florentine on her head as a pendant]] [[File:Florentiner Glaskopie NHM Ay762.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Historic rhinestone copy of the Florentine made in 1865, Natural History Museum, Vienna]] The stone's origins are disputed. By one account, it was cut by Lodewyk van Bercken for Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.<ref>[http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/chap11.htm The Diamond Invention. Chapter 11] by Edward Jay Epstein</ref> Charles is said to have been wearing it when he fell in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477. A peasant or foot soldier found the diamond on the Duke's person and sold it for 2 francs, thinking it was glass.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Burns |first=Walter |date=February 1923 |title=The Diamond and its Bloody Story |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSoDAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Florentine+Diamond%22&pg=RA1-PA39 |magazine=Popular Science |access-date=16 March 2018 }}</ref> The new owner Bartholomew May, a citizen of Bern, sold it to the Genoese, who in turn sold it to Ludovico Sforza. By way of the Fuggers, it came into the Medici treasury at Florence. Pope Julius II is also named as one of its owners.
Another version of the stone's early history claims that the rough stone was acquired in the late 16th century from the King of Vijayanagar in southern India by the Portuguese Governor of Goa, D. Luis de Castro, Count of Monsanto. The crystal was deposited with the Jesuits in Rome until, after lengthy negotiations, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany succeeded in buying it from the Castro-Noronha family for 35,000 Portuguese scudi crocati.{{Citation needed|date=November 2025}} Duke Ferdinand's son, Cosimo II, finally entrusted his father's purchase to Pompeo Studentoli, a Venetian cutter working in Florence. The finished gem was delivered on 10 October 1615. An inventory drawn up on Cosimo's death confirms the acquisition of the rough diamond by Ferdinand and describes the gem as 'faceted on both sides and encircled by a diamond encrusted band'.
thumb|Replica of the Florentine, set in a piece as it originally appeared in the 16th-17th century Documented history begins when Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the French jeweller and traveller, saw the stone among the possessions of Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1657. It then passed into the hands of the Habsburgs when the last of the Medicis died in 1737, as a result of the marriage of Francis III Stephan of Lorraine to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and was placed with the Habsburg Crown Jewels in the Hofburg in Vienna.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Andrew-Gee|first=Eric|date=November 6, 2025 |title=Once thought 'lost forever,' the Florentine Diamond was secretly tucked away in a Quebec vault for a century |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-famed-130-carat-florentine-diamond-hidden-in-quebec-to-go-on-display/ |newspaper=The Globe & Mail |access-date=November 6, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
The diamond was set in a hat aigrette and displayed together with other crown jewels in the Imperial Treasury in display case XIII. In 1865, the diamond's weight and specificities were properly documented by Dr. Moritz Hoernes, head of the Imperial and Royal Court Mineral Cabinet. A plaster cast was also made. A rhinestone model was made at L. Saemann in Paris, with great care taken that the colour tone of the glass replica corresponded as closely as possible to the original stone. The colour of the Florentine was described as "wine mixed tenfold with water". This historic copy is kept at the Natural History Museum, Vienna.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://objekte.nhm-wien.ac.at/objekt/th1942/ob1873 | title=Florentiner - Glasreplik eines verschollenen Diamanten Objekt - NHM Wien | access-date=2022-12-11 | archive-date=2022-12-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227102533/http://objekte.nhm-wien.ac.at/objekt/th1942/ob1873 | url-status=dead }}</ref>
=== Century of secrecy === With the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the First World War, the stone was removed from the Imperial Treasury by order of Emperor Charles I of Austria and taken by him to Switzerland. Following Charles' death, it remained in possession of his widow Empress Zita. Despite this, there was public speculation that the Florentine Diamond had gone missing as early as 1921.<ref name=":0" /> The Kingdom of Italy attempted to claim ownership of the Florentine under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, on the basis of its having come into Habsburg hands via the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. This claim was rejected by the Inter-Allied Reparation Commission in 1923, which found that the diamond was the private property of the Habsburgs.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=August 13, 1923 |title=Foreign News: Zita's Jewels |url=https://time.com/archive/6657558/foreign-news-zitas-jewels/ |magazine=Time |access-date=November 7, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> With the onset of the Second World War, Empress Zita relocated her family to Canada, taking the diamond with them. She ultimately returned to Europe in 1953, but chose to leave the diamond stored in a safe deposit box in a Quebec bank.<ref name=":1"/> The Empress expressed a desire that the diamond's existence should remain a secret for at least a century following the 1922 death of the Emperor Charles, and after her own death in 1989 knowledge of its status was confined to her sons Archduke Robert and Archduke Rudolf, and their sons in turn.<ref name=":0" />
In this period, various theories were proposed as to the fate of the Florentine, including that it had been sold by the Habsburgs and cut into multiple smaller diamonds.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brinkhof|first=Tim|date=August 26, 2024 |title=The Hunt: The Mysterious Fate of the Florentine Diamond |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-hunt-florentine-diamond-mystery-2527100 |website=Artnet |access-date=November 6, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> Its apparent mysterious disappearance became the subject of a number of works of fiction.<ref name=Imperfects>{{Cite news |last=McGroarty|first=Meredith|date=July 28, 2020 |title=The fabled Florentine Diamond takes center stage in tale of family and fate |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/florentine-diamond-centers-story-of-family-and-history/ |website=USC Dornsife |access-date=November 6, 2025 |language=en}}</ref> The Florentine jeweller Paolo Penko recreated the diamond with cubic zirconia in a set as it appeared based on historical records and description when Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria (1589–1631) wore it. This copy is exhibited at the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.paolopenko.com/2021/11/27/il-fiorentino-il-gran-diamante-di-toscana/ | title=Il Fiorentino. Il Gran Diamante di Toscana - Paolo Penko | date=27 November 2021 }}</ref>
The Florentine's continued existence was revealed to the public in November 2025. The safety deposit box was opened by Empress Zita's descendants, her grandsons Simeon von Habsburg-Lothringen, Lorenz von Habsburg-Lothringen and Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, in the presence of journalists from ''The New York Times''. Also present was the jeweler Christoph Köchert of the Austrian jewelry firm A.E. Köchert, who attested its authenticity. The Habsburgs indicated that they planned to have the diamond exhibited in a Canadian museum, in recognition of the country's providing refuge to the Empress and her family in wartime.<ref name=":0" /> Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe called it "a truly unique story that connects Quebec to the Habsburg family," stating that they were "working with the Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts to find a way for these jewels to be displayed and accessible to the public."<ref name=":1" />
==In fiction== The Florentine Diamond plays a role in Dan Hanel's 2015 novel ''In The Shadow of Diablo: Death at the Healing Waters'', Amy Meyerson's 2020 novel ''The Imperfects'',<ref name="Imperfects" /> Justin B. Hodder's 2021 novel ''The Mists of Morne'', as well as the 2022 novel ''Der rote Diamant'' (''The Red Diamond'') by Thomas Hürlimann.
The 2014 French film ''Le Dernier Diamant'', directed Éric Barbier, concerns a fictional attempt to steal the Florentine Diamond, which was at the time still considered to be missing.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mintzer|first=Jordan|date=April 25, 2014 |title=The Last Diamond (Le Dernier diamant): Film Review |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/last-diamond-le-dernier-diamant-691715/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |access-date=November 6, 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * List of diamonds
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Shipley, Robert M. (1936). ''Important Diamonds of the World'', pp. 15–18. Gemological Institute of America, USA, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 1936)
==External links== {{Commons category|position=left}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Yellow diamonds Category:Imperial Treasury, Vienna Category:Individual diamonds Category:Golconda diamonds Category:Recovered works of art