page_title: French Crown Jewels
section_title: Theft of the crown jewels during the Revolution
hierarchical_section_title: French Crown Jewels / Theft of the crown jewels during the Revolution
caption_attribution_description: English: Sketch of the uncut Hope diamond
context_page_description: The French Crown Jewels comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal power between 752 and 1825. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France. The set was finally broken up, with most of it sold off in 1885 by the Third French Republic. The surviving French Crown Jewels, principally a set of historic crowns, diadems and parures, are mainly on display in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, France's premier museum and former royal palace, together with the Regent Diamond, the Sancy Diamond and the 105-carat Côte-de-Bretagne red spinel, carved into the form of a dragon. In addition, some gemstones and jewels are on display in the Treasury vault of the Mineralogy gallery in the National Museum of Natural History.
context_section_description: The Crown Jewels were stolen in 1792 when the Garde Meuble (Royal Treasury) was stormed by rioters. Most, though not all, of the Crown Jewels were recovered eventually. Sancy Diamond was found in Russia at Vasily Rudanovsky collection. The Royal French Blue is believed to have been recut, and it is now known as the Hope Diamond.
  The Hope is famously alleged to have been surrounded by bad luck.  Marie Antoinette who supposedly wore it was beheaded (in fact, it was actually worn by her husband, Louis XVI, although he too was beheaded).  Other owners and their families experienced suicides, marriage break-ups, bankruptcy, deaths in car crashes, falls off cliffs, revolutions, mental breakdowns, and deaths through drug overdoses.  It was even tangentially associated with the case of the murdered Lindbergh baby, when its then owner, silver heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, pawned it to raise money that she ended up paying to a con-man unconnected with the actual kidnapping.  Most modern historians view the tales of a curse on the Hope to be spurious; the first mention of such tales is documented to 1908.  Pierre Cartier, the Parisian jeweler, is widely credited with publicizing the stories of a curse on the diamond in hopes of increasing its saleability. Since 1958, it has been in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it is the single most-viewed object in the Smithsonian's collection.
  The Crown Jewels were augmented by jewels added by Napoleon I and Napoleon III.
caption: Tavernier's original sketch of the diamond which became the Royal French Blue.
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