GEMS THAT VANISH

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 82, 31 December 1926, Page 22

GEMS THAT VANISH

A gem of Hie importance of the Conde Rose, wliich was stolen from the museum at Chantilly, can be disposed of only by re-euttijig or secret sale (says a diamond me'reliant jn . the "Daily M»ll”|. No buyer could openly flaunt a stone that every expert in the world would recognise as stolen property, The mere joy of possession must be his only reward, The jewel thief may elect to reept P> divide up |,is booty, thereby, of course, lessening its-value in an overwhelming degree, If was H, 1113 , it has been surmised, that the threat Mogul, the glory of an Indian emperor of the seventeenth century, vanished Opinion varies as to whether wlmf is left of it, recut and unrecognisable, is tile lost Orloff pf tjie Tsars, or the Kplhi-Nppr ol our owp Royal Family. There is, however, another market open to the seller of ill-gotten stones of fabulous value, The love of glittering stones is inborn in the Oriental, and many a Maharajah’s treasury may well contain vanished gems that, hidden awav for ever from the eyes of the world, may yet secretly delight their possessor, Already many world-famous gems have found their wav back again, publicly, to the India whence they came. Tiie Sapcy diamond, once the property of Queeji TJlizabetli, was pawned by Charles I,’s ill-fated Queen ip France, and after many vicissitudes, including theft under the revohitiopiiry regime, jias found to-day a safe harbour in tiie jewel house of Hie Maharajah of Patiala. The Akbar Shah and the famous em-erald-green Dresden stone are to-day th“ property of the Gpekwar of Rarofla. Riza Khan, the pew Shah of Persia, has still, presumably, ill his possession the twin armlets of the King of Kings, upon which sparkle the Se.a of Light and the Crown of tiie Moon, matched gems of fabulous value, but tiie JMoon of the Mountains, once in the Imperial treasury of Russia, has probably met once again the fate that befell it two centuries ago, when an ignorant Afghan soldier who had looted it sold it for a tp.v rupees to an Armenian. Tiie latter in ip’s turn parted with it to Catherine 11. of Russia for the handsome profit of half a million roubles, an annuity, and a patent of nobility.