Eight historic jewels were stolen from the Louvre on Sunday, October 19. Media outlets are scrambling to place a value on these priceless treasures. The value of one is pretty clear, though. Here’s what we know about the diamond brooch that belonged to Empress Eugenie, which entered the Louvre amid high drama in 2008 and has now vanished the same way.
Empress Eugenie’s diamond bow brooch was made in 1855 of old mine and old European-cut diamonds — lots of them — mounted in silver-topped gold by Francois Kramer. It ended up in the collection of U.S.-based jewelry dealer Ralph Esmerian and would be there today if he had not gone bankrupt after acquiring Fred Leighton. He had to sell his jewels in 2008. That’s when the Louvre acquired the Eugenie brooch.
Why jewelry historians are so upset
Everyone is trying to get a handle on the value of the eight stolen jewels, but like most historic jewels, they’re difficult to valuate because the intrinsic value of their parts — diamonds, pearls, emeralds, precious metal — is a fraction of the historical value. It’s the story those jewels tell of a time and place, and in this case, of French history.
For jewelry historians, they also represent a rare example of the jewelry arts at its finest. Only royalty could afford the kind of materials and workmanship that went into those treasures.
A big fear among jewelry historians now is that the thieves will remove the historic gems to sell on the black market, melting down the metal of the jewels themselves, thereby destroying the beauty and historical significance.
Some of those jewels managed to survive more than a century of political upheaval. The Eugenie brooch disappeared into a private collection long ago.
It’s a miracle the Louvre managed to procure these jewels in the first place. In so doing, the museum had secured them in a safe place (or so we thought) where the public could admire and learn from them.
What happened to museum security?
The problem was that they were not at safe. This was made painfully clear by the speed and ease with which the theft occurred on Sunday morning. The thieves pulled up to the gallery in a truck around 9:30 on Sunday morning, October 19, extended a ladder, smashed a window, climbed into the gallery, unarmed, managed to grab the jewels on display — dropping Empress Eugenie’s crown in their escape — made it back down and took off on motorcycles, jewels in hand.
“I am still in shock, in denial, angry, upset, sad, heartbroken, furious,” Benoit Repellin, worldwide head of jewelry at Phillips Auction House, posted on Instagram. “The Louvre! The largest museum in the world, welcoming over 8 million visitors per year. And thieves managed to enter by the window during opening hours and leave with invaluable jewels within 7 minutes!”
“I’m going to say out loud what everyone is thinking,” jewelry historian Vanessa Cron posted on Instagram. “I’ve worked in the jewelry industry for 20 years… The idea that the Galerie d’Apollon, at the Louvre, does not even have a security guard 24/7 is infuriating. The fact that the thieves clearly KNEW it (as they did not even bother being armed) is even more infuriating.”
True value of the Eugenie brooch
I’m not sure when the other stolen jewels were acquired, but the Eugenie brooch was purchased less than two decades ago, so is easier to valuate. The New York Times reported that the Society of Friends of the Louvre, a private sponsor that helped the museum acquire the bow in 2008, put its worth at “6.72 million euros, or about $7.8 million.” In fact, the Louvre paid a lot more than that to buy the brooch. It was purchased through Christie’s in April 2008 for $10.5 million.
At the time of the sale, the brooch belonged to Ralph Esmerian, who was about to be arrested for wire fraud. The Eugenie brooch barely made it out of the U.S. without getting snagged in the bankruptcy proceedings that complicated the sale of the rest of his collection. I wrote about that debacle here and here.
I still have the catalog from the cancelled April 15, 2008 Christie’s sale. It’s titled “Rare Jewels and Gemstones: The Eye of a Connoisseur.” The connoisseur in question was Esmerian, but his name was conspicuously absent from the catalog and the press release Christie’s sent out a week later, on April 22 to announce the sale of the Eugenie brooch to the Louvre. That release opened with a backstory:
“On May 12, 1887, the French Crown Jewels were sold at public auction by order of the Third Republic, in the Salle des Etats of the Louvre. Lot number five in the catalogue was a diamond bow brooch created by François Kramer for the wife of Napoléon III, Empress Eugénie (1826-1920). It was bought for 42,200 French Francs or €85,000 at the time, by jeweler Emile Schlesinger for Mrs. Caroline Astor (1830-1908), of the prominent New York family known in business, society and politics in the United States.”
Thus, this particular French crown jewel left France and entered The Gilded Age.
The Eugenie brooch stayed in private collections in the U.S. for the next 121 years. When one of those high flyers finally went down, France got its chance to have one of its royal jewels back.
How the Louvre (barely) managed to buy this crown jewel
On hearing a French royal treasure was up for sale at Christie’s New York, the Louvre administrators and the Friends of the Louvre “decided to do everything possible to acquire the jewel and return it to France.” But in a dramatic turn of events, the auction planned for April 15th was cancelled at the last minute, for what Christie’s called “judicial reasons.”
A private sale to the Louvre was quietly negotiated by François Curiel, then president of Christie’s Europe, with the agreement of Esmerian.
But the drama didn’t end there. Amid Esmerian’s snowballing financial mess, an outcry came from his own family, claiming the Eugenie brooch was not Ralph Esmerian’s to sell but family property. In the end, neither judicial problems nor the family’s claim prevented the sale to the Louvre, an outcome that left everyone (except Ralph Esmerian’s family) breathing a collective sigh of relief.
In other words, it’s a bloody miracle the Eugenie brooch landed at the Louvre in the first place. For the last 17 years, visitors to the museum could get an up-close and personal look at this beautiful, historic jewel.
“Among the great missions of the Louvre is the development of the museum’s collections, with a particular focus on works of art and precious objects belonging to members of the former French Royal family,” said Henri Loyrette, then president of the Louvre. “The crown jewels are important among the nation’s treasures and we are thrilled to see the brooch of Empress Eugénie returning to France.”
Thanks to the generous donors, Curiel added, “a French crown jewel has reclaimed its position among the museum’s Royal collections. Christie’s is proud to have facilitated this historic return.”
Now that $10.5 million gift is gone, along with untold millions worth of other historic jewels. These treasures are being referred to as “priceless” for a reason, though. If the thieves aren’t be apprehended before the jewels are destroyed, no amount of money can replace what was lost,