The jewellery collection was brought to Canada in 1940 by Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.Nasuna Stuart-Ulin/Supplied
The Habsburg family has chosen the scion of a storied Canadian dynasty as trustee for its fabled collection of jewels, recently revealed to be stashed in Quebec after being presumed missing for a century.
Andrew Molson, a board member of the Molson Coors brewery and chairman of Avenir Global, a Montreal-based network of global communications firms, will be responsible for stewarding the 137-carat Florentine Diamond and an emerald watch worn by Marie Antoinette, among other treasures.
The jewellery came to Canada in 1940 when Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, fled the Nazis and settled in Quebec for the duration of the Second World War.
The Florentine Diamond, embedded in a diamond brooch.Nasuna Stuart-Ulin/Supplied
She carried the precious baubles in a flimsy cardboard suitcase when she arrived and left them in a vault somewhere in Quebec, even after returning to Europe in the 1950s, as her grandchildren revealed earlier this month to global fanfare.
The whereabouts of the pale yellow Florentine Diamond had inspired heated speculation since the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War, which forced the ruling Habsburg dynasty to flee.
Empress Zita and her children lived an austere but apparently happy life in a converted nunnery outside of Quebec City through the 1940s.
The family was grateful for Canada’s hospitality and entrusted the jewels to a financial institution here, but the Empress made her descendants promise they wouldn’t reveal the trove’s location until 100 years after her husband’s death in 1922.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail earlier this month, her grandsons Lorenz and Simeon von Habsburg said they had placed the jewels in a Canadian trust and wanted to put them on display in the near future – although, the recent Louvre jewel heist made the financial institution balk at revealing the gems’ exact location.
“The family sought an independent Canadian custodian with governance experience and a demonstrated respect for cultural heritage,” they said in a statement on Friday. “Andrew Molson is a perfect fit.”
“I am pleased to confirm that I am the trustee of the Canadian trust which owns the private jewellery saved by the heirs of the last Austrian emperor while fleeing the Nazi regime,” said Mr. Molson in his own statement. “As trustee, I am honoured to help bring this extraordinary collection to the public through an exhibition that will allow people from around the world to experience it here in Canada.”
The exact timing and location of the exhibition are still to be determined, Mr. Molson added.