The crown jewels are estimated at a value of 300 million euros. Among the jewelry are brooches, earrings, tiaras and necklaces with 2000 pearls and more than 6700 brilliants.
Lawyer
Royal family lawyer Sergio Orlandi is convinced that the jewels will be returned. After all, in 1946, when they were transferred, it was stated in writing that they had been placed in the safe at the disposal of the rightful claimants. Those entitled parties would be the owners of the jewels, so the royal family. The jewels were never officially confiscated by the Italian state, but only kept.
A diamond tiara from Queen Marie Jose.
Ⓒ Getty Images
In 1946, the Italians voted in a referendum to abolish the Italian royal family. King Victor Emmanuel III had put the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the saddle, never hindered him until his fall on July 25, 1943 in Rome, and signed the racial laws against the Jews. His last attempt to win the referendum by abdicating and proposing his son Umberto II as new king was to no avail. Like the male descendants, this one was banned from Italy. It was not until 2002 that this ban was lifted.
Son
The son of Umberto II, Victor Emanuel IV, would have the jewels at his disposal with his three sisters. He is not unspoken. He was accused in 1978 of the murder of a German boy on an island below Corsica, in 1997 he stated that his grandfather’s racial laws against the Jews had not been bad (he later corrected it) and he has been suspected of corruption, money laundering and recruiting prostitutes, though he was later acquitted. His son Emanuele Filiberto is in a better position.
Emanuele Filiberto, grandson of King Umberto II.