so light is the crown of the Empress Eugenie, which fell into the hands of the thieves of the Louvre

Visibly damaged but with “overall case integrity”according to experts from the Louvre. So it’s like light Empress Eugenie’s crown of France, who on October 19 visited the thieves in their magnificent robes, in which they carried away other important joys of the French crown.

The Paris museum announced this miracle that the crown has practically preserved all its elements, the one that opens the door restoration complete no need for recreation or compensation. Ayer shared además Here are the first photos of the appearance of the corona after the accident.

The crown, which was initially preserved by the judicial police as part of the investigation, was handed over to the Louvre’s art objects department the following day, where the director of the department, Olivier Gabet, and his assistant, Anne Dion, responsible for that part of the collections, gave an informal report on its condition.

Initial diagnostics revealed that the frame, with its flexible structure and light weight, if it was deformed at the first moment, so that the force exerted is removed from the display case across a relatively wide hole drilled with a radial.

This tension caused the various arches of the crown to unravel. One of them landed on the gallery floor and then a violent impact would cause total aplastimentation of the stone.

The crown originally featured palm trees (decorative palm-shaped elements) of diamonds and emeralds alternating with oh golden eagles.

Hey only one of these águilas is missingas the museum explains, although it does not specify whether it owes to the subject or to the previous one.

All the palm trees are present, although four have lost their frame and some are deformed. The diamond and emerald globe that crowns the piece is preserved intact and firmly attached to the armor without loss.

Made originally from 56 emeraldsthe crown preserves all. De los 1,354 diamonds who decorate it, uniquely get a “dozen” of very small examples in the outline of the base. Others were lost but restored.

Restoration Committee

As with all work relating to French national collections, the restoration will be entrusted to an accredited, selected restorer or restorers. public competition in accordance with the Monuments Act, the Museum Act and the Public Procurement Act. On this basis, more detailed and technical information will be developed, which will guide interventions in the project.

The previously unprecedented symbolic character of this restoration, combined with the extraordinary specificity of the object, led the Louvre to accompany the restorer’s mission by creating advisory committee of expertsentrusted with independent advice on restoration decisions and methodology.

Chaired by Laurence des Cars, president-director of the museum, the committee will consist of six figures: Anne Dion, assistant director of the art department; jewelery historian Michèle Heuzé; Anaïs Alchus, Curator of Decorative Arts of the Second Empire at the Musée Orsay; mineralogist François Farges, professor at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural; Emmanuel Plé, responsible for the history of metals and decorative arts C2RMF; and his own Olivier Gabet.

These six personalities will be representatives five historic houses of high French jewelry —Mellerio, Chaumet, Cartier, Boucheron and Van Cleef & Arpels —, convened especially among its tall and artisan men whose tradition is rooted in its sigils with crown diamonds.

Spanish Emperor of France

The crown belonged to Eugenia de Montijo, A Spanish aristocrat who became the Emperor of France in Casarso with Napoleon III.

Born María Eugenia de Palafox-Portocarrero a Kirkpatrick, she was born in Granada in 1826. She was the daughter of Cipriano de Palafox a Portocarrero, Count of Teba and later Count of Montijo, and María Manuela Kirkpatrick, an aristocrat of Spanish origin.

The crown was given by Napoleon III to the official court jeweler, Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier, with a view to the Universal Exhibition in 1855. The delivery included two crowns, one for the emperor and one for the emperor, and was moved to various collaborators: the sculptor Gilbert (1816-1816, model of an arched needle, forming the crown of a large wing). alternating with diamond palms, while the jeweler Pierre Maheu (1807-1866) was considered the highest jewel. Crown diamond inspector Devin oversaw the selection and placement of the stones.

After the reign of the Empire in 1875, Eugenia was allowed to keep the crownsomething that did not happen with the hand of the emperor, which was used to establish the mount and sell its diamonds to the Order of the Third Republic.

Empress Eugenie bequeathed her crown in 1920 to Princess Marie Clothilde Napoléon, daughter of Witt, and was It was finally purchased by the Louvre museum in 1988.

Although it was never used for a coronation ceremony and it is possible that it was not lifted by the emperor – the crowned person -, Eugenia’s crown was founded today together with the crown of Louis escasísimas coronas soberenas preserved in France.