How did the Royal Jewels get out of Greece when the King left in 1967?


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mommabee

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Hello- I understand from a documentary on King Constantine that when the Royal Family left the country they only had a few clothes with them as they had expected to go back to Athens from Northern Greece. Anne Marie has quite a few gorgeous tiaras and jewels, including the gorgeous historic emerald parue, and I was wondering how they got the jewelry out of the country, or are they paste ( or non-paste) copies??
 
The jewels belonged to the royal family, these are authentic and unique jewelry. The vast majority came THROUGH Queen Olga of Greece, she belonged to the Russian royal family. Following the departure of the Greek royal family,the family requested the government permission to draw the jewels of Greek territory , the government authorized it in 1968. The jewels of this type are always documented.
 
It must have been very shortly after they left the country in Dec. 1967 as Q Anne-Marie wore her full rubie-set (incl. the tiara) at sister Benediktes wedding early in 1968!
 
Thanks for the answers! I would have thought Anne- Marie MIGHT have taken some of it with her, on the off chance they did not go back to Athens, and Constantine was just not saying so, but I was wondering about it. He basically said that they left with just a few clothes in suitcases and that was it. The Greek government was so intransigent about Tatoi ( spelling??) the privately owned home that George I bought with his Danish money ( according to Constantine in this interview he gave) that I was wondering if the government would have given them the same hassles about the jewelry, especially if it was considered STATE jewelry rather than Privately owned.. There are some absolutely gorgeous pieces in the collection..

I looked up the wedding of Princess Benedikte, and the ruby set AND the emerald set were worn by Anne Marie at the wedding for different things - Thanks again! Here is a link to that site I looked up

http://www.angelfire.com/realm3/denmark1/jewels1968.html
 
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The Queen once said in an interview for her silver wedding in 1989 in danish television that they took "nothing" with them... "We just walked off and that was that. And it shows, material things don´t really mean anything".
Well, priceless, historical jewels might be "nothing" for royal standards...?!
 
when the GRF left after the failed counter coup , not all bridges of communications fell the the government. Constantine was still the de jure Head of state and the military tried to negotiate with him his return. The negotiations lead to nowhere it seems, since Constantine didn't return, but there was contant, at least for some time. So I guess( and this is only a guess) that during that time the family asked that their jewellery, as part of their private fortune, was handed over to Rome and the government agreed to that request.
 
Yes, think so too. But it sounded a bit like "we left with only the clothes we were wearing"
 
:previous:Actually I read that that's what happened. They prepared very few things to take with them and all alone, because they didn't want to raise suspisions within the staff (asking for a bigger suitcase or some clothes to pack), they didn't know how much they could trust them not to notify the guard. Irene and Frederika had even fewer things with them ( the supposed story was that they had packed stuff to spend the night at Tatoi ), so no rooms for jewellery, except what they were already wearing
 
The normal process could had been:

The jewels are deposited in a bank, with safes to store jewelry.

The jewelry are move with documents of property, It is possible that the family left of greece with copies of this documents

Then when they were in Rome started an administrative process to take the jewels of the country, the Government did not opposed to it. With the documents authorizing of government, the bank is who move jewelry of the country
 
The family left Athens the night of the 13th of December 1967 with a few trusted assistants and aides. The family did not pack their own suitcases. The jewelry as they were their own personal property left with the family the same night. When the King was heading for Salonika the Colonels warned him not to land since they'd shoot him down. The family changed plans and headed to Rome.
There were no friendly communication between the Junta and the GRF therefore I highly doubt it that the colonels sent the jewels to the family so the Queen could wear them as early as 1968.
 
They did not travel with the jewels on the plane, they asked the following administrative authorizations to come out of Greece, this is a normal process. So I told the story about the banks, because it is a system for the traveling jewelry.
 
Are we talking personal jewels or crown jewels? I would think the government would not allow the removal of any crown jewels from the country.
 
For this reason the government never objected, they asked for the authorization in 1968, and this was granted.
 
Odette said:
The family left Athens the night of the 13th of December 1967 with a few trusted assistants and aides. The family did not pack their own suitcases. The jewelry as they were their own personal property left with the family the same night. When the King was heading for Salonika the Colonels warned him not to land since they'd shoot him down. The family changed plans and headed to Rome.
There were no friendly communication between the Junta and the GRF therefore I highly doubt it that the colonels sent the jewels to the family so the Queen could wear them as early as 1968.
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Ι fully agree with you. And we should not forget that in the beginning of their exile the GRF was supposed to go back in Greece. Only later (I do not remember when) the Junta organized a "Referendum" which ended to the abolition of Monarchy since 1 june 1973.
So i do not believe that upon his arrival in Rome end 1967 he started asking for the jewels, and that the Junta acted soooo quickly that they already received them early 1968.
 
fandesacs2003 said:
Ι fully agree with you. And we should not forget that in the beginning of their exile the GRF was supposed to go back in Greece. Only later (I do not remember when) the Junta organized a "Referendum" which ended to the abolition of Monarchy since 1 june 1973.

The Junta"abolished" the monarchy when a counter coup involving the then Royal Navy was uncovered and the King was blamed for orginising it. They never even go through the charade of organising a referendum.

So i do not believe that upon his arrival in Rome end 1967 he started asking for the jewels, and that the Junta acted soooo quickly that they already received them early 1968.
Click to expand...
Agreed 100%. The GRF has no "Crown Jewels". All jewels belong to the family and came as dowry with every bride since Grand Duchess then Queen Olga.
 It was their property and they had every right to remove it upon their departure in December 1967.

As a side "argument" let's not forget that after the Monarchy was abolished by the Junta and they declared a Democracy, they installed their first president who prompty moved into the Herodus Atticus Palace and changed the decor to fit the personality of the new "first lady".
The Junta was in no mood to return anything to the GRF in 1968 or till they were thrown out and the new crop came in...
 
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Not 100% on topic, but related:

Did the King receive his state allowance in the period 1968-1973?
 
The Colonels had not repealed the Constitution of 1952, was monarchical, until 1973, they officially declared the Republic. The monarchical constitution say that laws are carried out must be ratified by the King. The sanction of the law is binding on the Kings, if they oppose it, can have very serious consequences, such as the abdication, and other much more serious and severe, depending on each country. The Colonels had not repealed the Constitution of 1952, it was in force until 1973, King was required to approve the bill or suffer the consequences of failure ..... King Constantine has spoken on several occasions this situation. Colonels did not repealed the Constitution it remained in force. The King Baldouin had one case similar with law of abortion in Belgium.but the greek Constitution(1952-1973) is one case unique in Europe
 
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Prince Michael was still living in Greece in this period, and is to this day the only member of the GRF who is still allowed to have a Greek Passport. The junta had given him permission to remain as long as he kept a low profile and stayed out of trouble, which as far as I know he did. It is possible that he was the one who got the jewels and other personal artifacts out of Greece as he would have had access to Tatoi and would have been able to take then to Constantine and Anne Marie in person?

The remaining Wittlesbach regalia is I think either on display at the Benaki Museum, on display at parliament buildings or kept in the vault of the Bnnk of Greece.
 
On the Alexander Palace forum this subject came up a few years ago. A poster there suggested that as officials in the Danish Embassy had got Queen Olga of Greece's jewellery out of Russia during the revolution, the Greek RF might have had an plan for their valuables formulated with the same Embassy as the situation deteriorated for them in Greece. It's an idea anyway, as there are such strong links between the royal families of the two countries.
 
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Queen Frederica had to sell her big sapphire cabuchon and her tiara . Great Jewels lover was she in need of money ?
 
maria-olivia said:
Queen Frederica had to sell her big sapphire cabuchon and her tiara . Great Jewels lover was she in need of money ?
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The big sapphire was inherited by one of her children (probably irene) and was sold at auction to a Qatari museum in 2003. The tiara you refer to i assume was the necklace that was made to fit the sapphire - since this hasn't been seen since the 1970s (irene often wore it as a tiara) this might be the tiara she was referring to. Its assumed to be sold as its not been seen since, althogh it could well have been broken down for other uses, simply in need of repair etc....
 
Queen Freidiriki, after leaving Greece in 1967, she never sold her jewels. The legacy of Queen Sophia(she was Princess of Prussian), was sold by King Paul to restore, the Palaceof Tatoi and the Royal Palace of Athens. And I remember that during the World War ,and then , was when queen Freideriki had said that she had to sold her own jewelry.
 
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I am thinking to the tiara Princess Marie Chantal wore afterwards . I never knew if Mr Miller bought it again.
 
Tiara of MC has no relationship with the Romanov family or historical value. In an old interview, the journalist asks MC, if she has jewels with historical value, and focuses on the Romanov family, the answer was, that she had no jewels of historical value, but her mother in law, yes.

Regarding Tiara of Marie Chantal, she used this tiara at the wedding of Prince of sweden, I remember.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/31/e1/e7/31e1e71f14a4f58a61d3b81adac09954.jpg

And diamond tiara which was widely used by Queen Freideriki, it was of Queen Sophia of Greece, it was never sold, but the Queen Anna María has never used it, and I understand why she has not used that tiara, because frankly, must be very heavy, uncomfortable and sorry to Marie Chantal did not fit on the head. The jewels of the princess Irini I do not know about it, but she is a woman who has never given great value to the jewels.
 
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the Tiara of Marie chantal has no historical value, so it catches my attention, because the value of the tiaras of European royal houses is in the history, not in the economic value of the jewel. It strikes me that Princess Tatiana at your wedding used a jewel of the Greek royal family, and Marie Chantal no.
 
I can imagine given how low-key Princess Irene is that she could still have her tiara and simply choose not to wear it very often anymore.

I think people are always surprised when long forgotten tiaras reappear but I guess when you have plenty of tiaras like Queen Anne-Marie you don't worry about wearing them all just to prove you still have them. The big diamond tiara MC wore looked very big and heavy and I think Anne-Marie would give it a miss in favour of her other tiaras which all seem much lighter and easier to wear.
 
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