Rare pink diamond goes on display in France 100 years after amateur heist

Notably, 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.

Key points

• It was first mentioned in 1740 in an inventory of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, drawn up after his death, the Château de Chantilly stated.
• It now owns the Château de Chantilly, 50km (31 miles) north of Paris, along with thousands of artworks and manuscripts which became the Musée Condé collection.
• It will once again be on display in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly until 3 January.
• According to The museum's director Mathieu Deldicque, while the apple story may sounds far-fetched, it was widely covered by newspapers at the time.
• Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars.

In practice, the nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone known as the "Grand Condé" was pilfered in an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly in October 1926 and concealed in a hollowed-out apple.

In practice, the diamond – one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution – was recovered a few weeks afterwards when a hungry maid at the hotel in which the thieves were staying took a bite of the apple.

Deldicque has faced questions regarding whether the exhibition may be tempting fate, especially given the string of heists on European cultural institutions previously 12 months, including the daring daylight robbery of jewellery from the Louvre museum in Paris.

While he declined to reveal to CNN how much the diamond was insured for, he observed that extensive academic study into the properties of the diamond had taken place to produce it uniquely identifiable.

As well as previously unseen archive material regarding the gem's history and theft, form part of the exhibition, according to the museum, the results of this analysis.

Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars. The highest cost ever fetched for one at auction was $71.2m (£53.6m) in 2017, according to Sotheby's. The exact origins of the Grand Condé remain a mystery.

It then became part of the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, the wife of French King Louis Philippe I, and then her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale.

He bequeathed it to the Institut de France. It now owns the Château de Chantilly, 50km (31 miles) north of Paris, along with thousands of artworks and manuscripts which became the Musée Condé collection.

Taken together, the developments around rare pink diamond goes on display in France 100 years after amateur point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.