This story begins on July 29, 1900, in the city of Monza in Italy’s Lombardy region, when King Umberto I was assassinated by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Four days later, Queen Margherita would hand over Italy’s crown jewels to her daughter-in-law, who had become Queen Elena following the death of Umberto. They were accompanied by an inventory, and a note: The jewels would be kept in a safe and every time the former queen wished to wear them, she would have to make a formal request.
On September 6, 1943, a three-shelved black leather jewelry case lined in blue velvet sat in safe No. 3 at Rome’s Quirinale Palace, the home of Italy’s ruling family. More than four decades had passed since the assassination of Umberto I, and now, in the middle of World War II, the new king, Victor Emmanuel III, was about to flee the capital. He ordered that the jewels be put in a safe and they eventually end up in a vault at the Bank of Italy, but not for long. Italy soon fell to German occupiers who had no qualms about seizing anything they wanted, including the property of the royal family. A German officer showed officials at the bank an order written by Hitler himself demanding that the Savoy family treasure be handed over. But the bank already had a response planned, telling the German representative that the king had escaped and taken everything with him. And indeed, when the Germans inspected safe number three, they found it empty. The jewels had been moved to a safe hiding place traveling via a 16th-century tunnel that connects the Quirinale to the Palazzo Barberini. There, a niche had been dug in the wall and the treasure was safely hidden.
The question of who is the rightful owner of the jewels has been asked repeatedly since the year 1946, when Italy became a republic. King Victor Emmanuel III, tarred by his association with the Mussolini regime, had abdicated in favor of his son, Umberto II. Despite this effort to rehabilitate the family’s reputation, a majority of Italians voted to remove the House of Savoy from its role leading Italy. After the referendum, Umberto II asked to meet the new governor of the Bank of Italy, Luigi Einaudi, to show him the jewelry case lined in blue velvet. “In the light of recent events, I would like the crown jewels not to go immediately into the hands of a commissioner who might take hasty measures and perhaps distribute and assign them in ways that do not conform to their historical value,” he wrote. “These are jewels that have been worn by the queens and princesses of the house of Savoy…. I would like them to be deposited with the Bank of Italy to be handed over to the rightful owner.”
And it is precisely this question of who is the rightful owner of these jewels that has kept lawyers and other experts arguing for almost 80 years. Are they the property of the heirs of the house of Savoy, or part of Italy’s patrimony, belonging to all Italians? Einaudi would later write in his diaries, praising the scrupulousness of King Umberto II: “It is possible to argue that the jewels do not belong to the state, but to the royal family.” The debate is ongoing, and in 2022, the Savoy family sued the Bank of Italy asking for the jewels to be returned to them.
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In his diary, Marquis Falcone Lucifero, who in 1946 would take custody of the jewels and deposit them with the Bank of Italy, wrote “I see the crown jewels for the first time, they are truly marvelous and worth more than a billion!” From then on, the jewels would be locked in a black leather case measuring 39 by 31 by 20 centimeters, then covered with tar paper and sealed with 11 seals. No one knows exactly what was in it. The book Jewelry of the House of Savoy (written by the jewelry historian Stefano Papi with Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy) mentions several sets of jewels purchased by Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, in the mid-19th century for his daughter-in-law Maria Adelaide of Austria. Many pieces were made by the jeweler Musy, including diadems, earrings, and bracelets. A tiara commissioned by Umberto I is composed of 11 scrolls of brilliant gems, with 11 drop pearls, 64 circular pearls, 1040 brilliants, and 541 diamonds weighing 2,092 carats. But it has long been unclear which jewels were kept in the Bank of Italy and which, instead, remained in possession of members of the Savoy family. The inventory was made by counting the number of gems and pearls and not the precious pieces that incorporated them.
According to several reports, 6,732 diamonds and gems and 2,000 pearls were deposited with the Bank of Italy. Some estimates place the value of the items at €300 million today. But others disagree, offering far lower assessments. In July 1976, the leather jewelry case was reopened in the presence of jewelers Gianni Bulgari and Tito Vespasiani after there were rumors of theft and losses. When the jewellers examined the case and its contents, the treasure appeared to be intact though the value was not as high as many expected. Vespasiani, then president of the Association of Roman Goldsmiths, said they were worth a few hundred million. And Bulgari, questioned years later on the subject, replied: “All I remember of that inspection in 1976 is exclaiming after seeing them: ‘Is it possible that these items are really the treasure of the kingdom of Italy?’”
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Not all of the Savoy jewels are kept in the Bank of Italy, however. In 2007 and 2021, two celebrated auctions were organised by the Savoy heirs with some of the most precious pieces being put up for sale. These include the famous Musy tiara made of natural pearls and diamonds and worth over €1 million, the centerpiece of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction. (The name of the buyer has never been revealed.) Queen Margherita’s famous 10-strand necklace of 684 pearls and the laurel-leaf diamond tiara with a central daisy given by Victor Emmanuel II to his daughter-in-law Margherita are also not found in the vault. The pink tourmaline tiara, a gift from Queen Maria Theresa of Sardinia to Princess Elisabeth of Saxony in 1850, remained in the family’s possession as well. It is part of a set that includes a necklace, a brooch with three pendants, earrings, and two bracelets. Part of an interchangeable parure with pink tourmaline, ruby, and sapphire options, the public saw Clotilde Courau wear it with pink tourmaline in an oval cut, mounted on a floral setting, on the day of her marriage to Emanuele Filiberto, grandson of the last king of Italy, in 2003. (Princess Maria Gabriella wore the same parure with sapphires.)
