FRANCE SOLD ITS OWN CROWN JEWELS IN 1887 AND KEPT ALMOST NOTHING

Nearly 80,000 diamonds, pearls, and precious stones that had once belonged to French monarchs — from Louis XIV and Napoleon to Empress Eugénie — were brought to the Louvre and sold over nine days. Queenly tiaras, imperial jewels, and legendary diamonds were dismantled, reset, and scattered across the world.

But what happened next was even more astonishing.

American jeweler Charles Lewis Tiffany purchased 24 of the 69 lots and brought French royal jewels to New York. A diamond jewel belonging to Empress Eugénie eventually entered the collection of Caroline Astor. Other pieces passed through the hands of European aristocrats, jewelers, and private collectors.

Then the Louvre began buying some of them back.

The pearl tiara of Eugénie. The emerald tiara of the Duchesse d’Angoulême. Eugénie’s diamond brooch. And the legendary Grand Mazarin — a diamond whose story began in the time of Louis XIV

For decades, France spent enormous sums trying to recover pieces of the collection it had once sold in 1887.

And then, in 2025, the story took another shocking turn.

Four thieves broke into the Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre and stole jewels that the museum had spent decades trying to bring back to France.

The entire operation lasted less than eight minutes.

How did Louis XIV, Napoleon, and Eugénie become part of the collection that France ultimately decided to sell? How did Charles Lewis Tiffany acquire part of the French Crown Jewels? Which pieces survived the 1887 auction? And why did the Louvre spend decades trying to buy them back?

And most importantly — what happened to these legendary jewels after they returned to the Louvre?

This is the story of the French Crown Jewels — Louis XIV, Napoleon, Eugénie, Charles Lewis Tiffany, Caroline Astor — and a collection that was sold, scattered, recovered… and then stolen again.