The
Hortensia was purchased by King
Louis XIV of France in 1643 and was in his custody until 1715. It was stolen in 1792 during the unrest of the
French Revolution from the
Garde-Meuble de la Couronne in
Paris (today the
Hôtel de la Marine), where royal art and furniture was stored and administered. It was recovered from an attic in the Parisian district of
Les Halles in a bag together with other crown jewels, among them the
Regent Diamond. An apocryphal account states that its location was given up in the confession of a man shortly before his execution. It was stolen again in 1830, this time from the
Ministry of the Navy, but recovered shortly thereafter. It acquired its name in the early 1800s from
Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland, stepdaughter of
Napoleon I and mother of
Napoleon III. Notably Hortense never owned the diamond or even wore it, and it remains a matter of speculation why it was named for her. During the
First French Empire, the
Hortensia was worn by Napoleon on his
epaulette braid. Around 1856, the diamond was set into a headband for the wife of Napoleon III, Empress
Eugénie, by court jeweller Christophe-Frédéric Bapst. In 1887, the
Third French Republic sold most crown jewels to quell fears of a royalist ''coup d'état
, from which only jewels of historic significance were exempted. Due to its history, the diamond was one of these, alongside the Regent Diamond, the Mazarin diamonds
and others. The Hortensia'' is on display at the
Galerie d'Apollon of the
Louvre museum in Paris. ==See also==