A rare nine-carat pink diamond stolen in an overnight heist almost 100 years ago has returned to France for public exhibition at the Château de Chantilly. Known as the Grand Condé, the royal gem survived the French Revolution and was famously recovered in 1926 after a hotel maid bit into the hollowed-out apple where thieves had hidden it.
The Return of the Grand Condé to the Château de Chantilly
One of history’s most unusual royal jewelry thefts is stepping back into the light. A rare pink diamond is going on display in France for the first time since it was stolen almost 100 years ago to the day – the last time it was shown to the public. The gem will remain on view in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly until January 3.
Known as the Grand Condé, the nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone is one of the few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution. The exact origins of the Grand Condé remain a mystery. The stone first appeared in a 1740 inventory following the death of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé. It later passed through the collections of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily and her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale, who ultimately bequeathed it to the Institut de France. Today, the institute owns both the historic estate located 50km (31 miles) north of Paris and the extensive Musée Condé collection.
The 1926 Heist and the Hotel Maid’s Apple
The gemstone’s modern fame rests as much on its bizarre recovery as its intrinsic value. In October 1926, thieves carried out an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly, pilfering the pink diamond and concealing it inside a hollowed-out apple.
The criminals did not enjoy their loot for long. A few weeks later, authorities recovered the jewel after a hungry maid at the hotel where the thieves were staying bit into the apple, exposing the hidden treasure.
Mathieu Deldicque, director of the museum, acknowledged that the tale sounds far-fetched. He noted that the incident received extensive newspaper coverage at the time, confirming it as a matter of historical record.
Security Concerns and Modern Analysis of the Gemstone
Exposing such a high-value artifact today carries undeniable risks. Deldicque has faced pointed questions about whether putting the diamond on public display might tempt fate, particularly given a recent string of heists targeting European cultural institutions in the past 12 months. That wave of crime includes an audacious daytime jewelry robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
While museum leadership declined to reveal the exact insurance valuation for the Grand Condé, curators have taken proactive steps to protect and document the piece. Extensive academic analysis of the diamond’s unique physical properties was conducted to make it uniquely identifiable. Those scientific findings, alongside previously unseen archival material detailing the historic theft and the gem’s provenance, form a central part of the current exhibition.
Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars. The highest price ever fetched for a pink diamond at auction reached $71.2m (£53.6m) in 2017, according to Sotheby’s.