Wealth of the Grand Ducal Family

[Odette]

Originally Posted by auntie

How come they wanted to auction off the late GD's jewels?

They cancelled that auction as fast as one could say "stop" since there was an outcry.
I do not know if they have too many jewels already or it was the same like the inheritance of the Orleans. According to them (Orleans) they could not equitably divide the property so they auctioned it off. Who knows?
It could be not for the money though.

[firelight]

Thanks for the helpful replies. I hope I didn't offend anyone with the question, it's just that I read this article years ago when I didn't know anything about Luxembourg but now I know Lux is a pretty rich country so I was curious. Also, I read that the Lux family sold off some of their properties to the Lux government after WW2 due to financial reasons. It seems to me they would not have done so unless circumstances were fairly desperate.

Of course they could have rebuilt themselves since then - if they're really worth $4.3b they've certainly done very well for themselves! The question is, how did they do it? In some ways, I feel this is harder for a royal family than for regular families because as a royal you have to be careful not to appear to be exploiting your position for financial gain. It looks bad and tends to bring out the pitchforks in the more republican-minded among your subjects.

I didn't know about the auctioning of the GD's jewels though. When was this supposed to happen?

[lucien]

Originally Posted by kelly9480

The Windsors' personal wealth is around L350m if you only take into account their private property (the rest belongs to the crown and is held in trust for the nation/taxpayers), and even a large portion of that money is held in stuff like art, houses, furniture, jewels -- not in cash. In terms of cash, the PoW gets the most in the family (The Queen gets about L6m less and has to spend a lot of her money on relatives and maintaining Sandringham and Balmoral).

Liechtenstein has the greatest private wealth, while Belgium and Denmark both claim less than $20m, and Sweden was around $20m before the stock market slumps. Norway refuses to comment, Spain has amassed an estimated E30m (from where, no one knows because they were destitute before the restoration). Luxembourg isn't poor, but there's no way we can assume that the family is obscenely rich. Their main assets would be what Adolphe had, since no one who has married in since then came with a fortune (Felix was a younger son, Josephine-Charlotte was a Belgian, and Maria Teresa's family lost their great wealth in the revolution). I wouldn't be surprised if Sibylla alone has more money than her in-laws combined.

Wrong Kelly.Lux is very wealthy,it is second to the Liechtenstein's,and Adolf had nothing,absolutely nothing,to do with it.Charlotte and Jean,had all to do with it.

[lucien]

Originally Posted by auntie

How come they wanted to auction off the late GD's jewels?

As Odette already said,the auction was called off after a public outcry.

The late GD Josephine-Charlotte had not enclosed in her will where each and every piece would go,and moreover,some of the children,
let alone the d-i-l's,didn't have all that great memories of her,so no-one actually wanted the pieces,at all.She may have come across
as a lady with humour and wit,but she had her streaks and fits.

You still see 'm very rarely if at all.
They're stuck with 'm,allthough I'm sure many here would know what to do with them,the Lux Family prefers
to let that part of the collection collect dust in the vault.I can not entirely disagree with them,the connotation
has too many negative elements.

[firelight]

Thanks for your interesting explanation about the jewels, lucien. I was wondering the same thing as auntie.

Originally Posted by lucien

some of the children,
let alone the d-i-l's,didn't have all that great memories of her,so no-one actually wanted the pieces,at all.

Oh my.

Originally Posted by lucien

You still see 'm very rarely if at all.
They're stuck with 'm,allthough I'm sure many here would know what to do with them,the Lux Family prefers
to let that part of the collection collect dust in the vault.I can not entirely disagree with them,the connotation
has too many negative elements.

Hmmm...why not loan them to a museum so the public can view them as an exhibit (like british crown jewels, Diana's gowns)? Don't have to worry about dividing them / selling them / guarding them / having them lying around the house giving off bad vibes to the d-i-ls! OK, i'm being flippant but one of the reasons I was inclined to think them 'poor' was because I don't see MT wearing a lot of different jewellery or tiaras (correct me if I'm wrong), unlike e.g. the British RF. So I thought the GD family did not have much by way of sparkly stuff.

BTW, lucien, could you please explain your last comment about how Charlotte and Jean are responsible for the family's wealth? Thanks in advance.

[lucien]

Originally Posted by firelight

Thanks for your interesting explanation about the jewels, lucien. I was wondering the same thing as auntie.



Oh my.



Hmmm...why not loan them to a museum so the public can view them as an exhibit (like british crown jewels, Diana's gowns)? Don't have to worry about dividing them / selling them / guarding them / having them lying around the house giving off bad vibes to the d-i-ls! OK, i'm being flippant but one of the reasons I was inclined to think them 'poor' was because I don't see MT wearing a lot of different jewellery or tiaras (correct me if I'm wrong), unlike e.g. the British RF. So I thought the GD family did not have much by way of sparkly stuff.

BTW, lucien, could you please explain your last comment about how Charlotte and Jean are responsible for the family's wealth? Thanks in advance.

Charlotte,and her son,had a good/shrewed mind investmentwise.Till the mid 1950's Lux economy was mainly thriving on agriculture and steel industry,but as changes/reforms in these fields were under way within the BeNeLux treaty,under Charlotte's Reign that changed from then on into the country being an almost financial institution on itself,a tax-free safe-haven for any money anyone wished to stash,the billions poored in and with the GD Family having majority stakes in some of the financial institutions,they sky-rocketed financially coppled to wise investment policies by the Family,et voila.

[lizie86]

Liechtenstein monarchy tops list of richest royals | UK news | The Guardian

[Shikha Pal]

The article is 10 years old !

[tommy1716]

according to teh article below the Luxembourg royal family is one of the cheapest in Europe (though the Spanish RF may take a budget cut taking them lower).

Spain's Royal family cut budget for first time in history - Telegraph

COMPARATIVE ANNUAL BUDGETS:
Britain €48.6m (£40.6m)
Netherlands €39.6m (£33.1m)
Norway €28m (£23.4m)
Belgium €13.7m euros (£11.5m)
Denmark €12.6m euros (£10.5m)
Sweden €12.2m euros (£10.2m)
Spain €8.9m euros (£7.43m)
Luxembourg €8.7m euros (£7.2m)


I wonder how much, if any, of this goes to the family themseleves in teh way the Dutch Queen gets a personal allowance or is it all for "official business" only?

[maria-olivia]

Lucien,
Do you know how much the Grand ducal family had to pay for the cancellation of the Auction. This Auction was organized by Prince Jean Junior and prince Philip of Wurtenberg
Short time later Prince Jean Jr married a second time with Diane de Guerre. No show up at their wedding from Grand Duke Henri and his wife.

On the other hand it was known that Grand-Duchess Charlotte's husband Prince Consort Felix was a casino-player and she had to pay her husband's debts.

Thanks for answering the 2 questions
Thanks for answer

[Lalla Meriem]

The 8.7 million Euro only reflects the cost of the monarchy. It is not a reflection of the personal wealth of the family.

Some time after the auction was cancelled it was estimated by royal watchers with connections to the auction business that the fee for cancellation would have been around 200,000 Euro. The cancellation fee is a certain percentage of the estimated sale of the items. Some of the items may have been sold privately by the family members that acquired them. Henri said in an interview that each of JC's children had gotten their favorite pieces of the jewelry and the rest of the jewels are stored. I don't see why they don't place the jewels into The Nassau Family Foundation.

Prince Jean is on good terms with his family. Their absence at his second wedding isn't a sign of family discord. Maybe they just didn't approve of Jean's marriage to a woman that he was allegedly involved with prior to his divorce. In any case, they remain a close family.