The pearl was found by an African slave on the coast of the isle of Santa Margarita in the Gulf of Panama in the mid-16th century. The slave who found it was rewarded with freedom. The historian and writer,
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, from the
Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, made the pearl famous. In his
Royal Commentaries of Peru he wrote: The pearl made its first appearance in
Spain in 1660, when
Philip IV of Spain presented his daughter
Maria Theresa with it. The occasion for the expensive present was the marriage of Maria Theresa to
Louis XIV of France. Before the king gave it to his daughter he wore the pearl himself. An eyewitness noted: La Pelegrina traveled to
France with its new owner. After the death of Maria Theresa in 1683 La Pelegrina's history went blank until it reappeared in
Saint Petersburg in 1826. Although it is not known what happened to the pearl after Maria Theresa's death, there is good reason to believe she left it to her only son, and that the pearl entered the
French Crown Jewels. Its last royal owner could have been
Louis XVI, who was executed during the French Revolution. The Crown Jewels were stolen in 1792 when the
Garde Meuble (Royal Treasury) was stormed by rioters. It is possible that La Pelegrina was stolen together with the
Sancy Diamond and French Blue Diamond, and was thereafter sold to the
Russian nobles of the
House of Yusupov.
Zinaida Yusupova had her portraits painted while she was wearing the famous pearl. The pearl passed to her son,
Felix Yusupov, best known for participating in the murder of
Grigori Rasputin. During the
October Revolution of 1917 many jewels from the Yusupov collection were taken by the
Bolsheviks, but La Pelegrina had a different fate. Felix was able to smuggle the pearl, together with a few other jewels, out of Russia. During the following years Felix sold some of his jewels, but he could not bring himself to sell La Pelegrina, one of his favorite treasures, until 1953, when he sold it to a
Geneva-based jeweler. ==References==