Empress Zita's 137-Carat Habsburg Diamond Was Hidden For 86 Years

Empress Zita's 137-Carat Habsburg Diamond Was Hidden For 86 Years In November of 2025, in a Canadian bank vault that had not been opened since 1939, the great-grandchildren of Empress Zita of Habsburg found a dark green Louis Vuitton suitcase that no one in their family had remembered to open. Inside it was the Florentine Diamond. The Florentine is a 137-carat yellow Indian-cut diamond. It had passed through the Medici, the Bourbons, and the Habsburgs across four centuries. The last Empress of Austria-Hungary, fleeing the Nazis in the summer of 1939, had packed it into the suitcase with 15 other imperial jewels and rented a single Canadian safety deposit box under a name her grandchildren did not know. She died in 1989 without telling anyone which bank, which branch, or which name. The Florentine Diamond had been classified as lost during the Habsburg flight from Austria, 1939, in every major gem inventory for 86 years. This is the story of the diamond, the empress, and the suitcase a Canadian bank held for almost a century. Subscribe and turn on notifications. The vault is open. #RoyalCollections #FlorentineDiamond #EmpressZita