We got the devastating news yesterday that nine priceless items from the French Crown Jewels had been stolen by masked robbers from their permanent display in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Musée du Louvre, the most spectacular piece among which is Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara!
Composed of 212 pearls and and 1998 diamonds, this magnificent Pearl and Diamond Tiara was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III to celebrate his marriage to Eugénie de Montijo in 1853, using stones from the French Crown Jewels that were previously used by Empress Marie Louise of France and Princess Marie Therese, Duchesse d’ Angouleme.
Composed of seven stems of three large superimposed pearls alternating eight pelt-shaped cartouches, topped with a pear and diamond foliage. The cartouches are drawn by diamond foliage bordered by a row of pearls, and contain three pearls and diamond foliage. The whole resting on a band of round pearls and diamond leaves. In total: two hundred and twelve pearls including seventeen pears, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight diamonds and 992 roses.
Empress Eugénie wore the magnificent Pearl Tiara for an iconic portrait by the famed Franz Xaver Winterhalter in 1853, shortly after her marriage which itself came just days after the then Prince-President Napoléon had declared himself Emperor.
Empress Eugénie also wore the Pearl Tiara for the the Investiture of the Emperor by Queen Victoria into the Most Noble Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle in 1855, during a State Visit to the United Kingdom.
The Pearl Tiara stayed in France when Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie went into exile in 1870, and after being displayed at the 1878 Exposition Universelle and at the Musée du Louvre in 1884, it was sold for 78,100 French Francs in the Auction of the French Crown Jewels in 1887.
A few years later, Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara was acquired by Prince Albert of Thurn und Taxis as a wedding gift for his bride, Archduchess Margarethe Klementine of Austria, in 1890.
Archduchess Margarethe Klementine wore Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara numerous times during her long marriage, including the Diamond Wedding Anniversary of the Prince and Princess von Thurn und Taxis at Schloss St. Emmeram in Regensburg in 1950, and it was inherited by her sons in succession but remained unworn for a few years.
In 1980, Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara was worn by Countess Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau when she married Johannes, the 11th Prince of Thurn und Taxis at Saint Emmeram’s Abbey in Regensburg.
Usually you get married where the girl comes from, but since my father has only a villa in Munich (the Schönburg-Glauchau Seat of Schloss Rochsburg was on the other side of the Iron Curtain and not returned to the family until 1991), it was much nicer to do it at Regensburg. It was an incredibly grand party. Johannes’s friends came from all over the world. I wore a couture gown by Valentino, topped by Marie Antoinette’s diamond crown (she actually wore Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara). It was really something to see. Half the Rothschilds were there, and then all those Prussian Counts and Barons covered with medals and Iron Crosses.”
Princess Gloria notably wore Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara when she dressed as Marie Antoinette for Prince Johannes’ famously lavish 60th Birthday Ball in 1986.
All this was mere foreplay to the bash’s climax: an eighteenth-century Don Giovanni costume ball, which began at 9:30 Friday evening and ended at 9:30 Saturday morning. Staged by Princess TNT with an extravagance and attention to detail that recalled Luchino Visconti’s The Damned, the ball was an example of the kind of ”divine decadence” possible only in the aristocratic heart of old Europe.
Finally, Princess TNT made her grand entrance. Wearing a $10,000 pale-pink panniered dress by Mme. Mine Vergez, who does costumes for the Paris Opera, a two-foot wig, and Marie Antoinette’s own pearl tiara (she actually wore Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara), she descended the staircase, her train held by four little girls in matching pink dresses.
After the Prince’s death in 1990, Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara was among various family heirlooms sold off to bolster family finances, the highlight of a famous auction at Sotheby’s in 1992.
Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara was acquired by the Friends of the Louvre and displayed with the other French Crown Jewels in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara is among the Jewels stolen from the Louvre in October 2025, alongside the Tiara, Necklace and Earrings of the Orléans Sapphire Parure, Empress Marie-Louise’s Emerald Parure, Empress Eugénie’s Diamond Bow Brooch and the Diamond Reliquary Brooch.
We had been waiting to do this in-depth article on Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara for the bicentenary of her birth next year, but circumstances have compelled us to feature it now. Hopefully the Tiara will be recovered intact soon!
Empress Eugénie’s Pearl Tiara
Empress Eugenie’s Emeralds
Diamond Bow Brooch
Andean Emerald Cross
French Crown Pearl Brooch
