A Historic 40-Carat Diamond Ring Was Stolen From the French Royal Family

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published 6 April 2019

According to French newspaper Le Parisian, police in Paris opened an investigation this week into the theft of a heirloom ring belonging to Countess Olympia von Arco-Zinneberg. Valued at over one million euros (roughly $1.1 million), the missing ring is set with a precious Bonaparte diamond. The stolen ring is a centuries-old French heirloom, and features a dazzling 40-carat diamond plucked from the crown of Napoleon III's wife (and Prince Jean-Christophe's ancestor), Empress Eugenie, pictured above.

The ring had been gifted to the Countess by her fiancé Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon, who also happens to be the great-nephew of Emperor Napoleon I of France. Prince Jean-Christophe's official title as the head of the former Imperial House of France basically means that if the country were to revert from a democratic republic to monarchy, for whatever reason, he would be a shoo-in for the throne.

The countess' ring was stolen from a car in the 6th District, according to Le Parisian. The ring, along with a number of bank cards and forms of identification, as well as a computer, was in a bag that was stolen.

Here's the Countess at a 2014 wedding.

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This isn't the first major jewelry theft in Paris to make headlines—Kim Kardashian was also the victim of a violent robbery in 2016. Men impersonating police officers stole almost $10 million from the reality star, including a $4.49 million ring that she received as a present from her husband Kaye West. The criminals were never caught, and it was suspected that they may have made their escape to Belgium.

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French officials looking into the case of Countess Olympia's missing ring are hoping that this investigation will have a different outcome, no doubt in part thanks to the high-profile nature of those involved.

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Lagos-born and Houston-raised, Ineye Komonibo is a writer and editor with a love for all things culture. With an academic background in public relations and media theory, Ineye’s focus has always been on using her writing ability to foster discourse about the deep cyclical relationship between society and the media we engage with, ever-curious about who we are and what we do because of what we consume. Most recently, she put her cultural savvy to work as a culture critic for R29 Unbothered, covering everything from politics to social media thirst to the reverberations of colorism across the African diaspora.