Saboya lose the legal battle against Italy: their jewels belong to the state | People
The jewels of the Savoy house do not belong to the Savoy family. Belong to the Italian state. This was decided by the Civil Court of Rome on May 15, which he rejected The petition for the return of family jewels By the heirs of Humberto II, the last king of Italy, describing it as “manifestly unfounded”. The legal dispute, started in 2022, has been led in recent years Manuel Filiberto de SavoyaThat it would have been the heir of the Italian throne if the Republic had not been founded in 1946. Also his aunts María Gabriela, María Pía and María Beatriz supported him.
The treasure includes about 7,000 brilliant and 2,000 pearls mounted in almost twenty necklaces, slopes, headbands and pins that wore queens and princesses such as Elena de Orleans, Margarita Teresa de Savoy or María José de Belgicaconsorts of the last Italian monarch. They belonged to the royal family until three days after the referendum which ended with the monarchy, on June 5, 1946, when the prime minister, Alcide de Gasperi, asked Humberto II to deliver them. According to the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy, the jewels of the crown were delivered to the kings “as a equipment” for the performance of their functions, but not as a personal property, according to Gasperi. Then the treasure passed into an battleship chamber of the central deposit of the Bank of Italy, where they are still kept 79 years later.
“As a citizen, I hope the state will soon show these historical jewels in a museum,” said Olina Capolino, lawyer of the Bank of Italy, after judicial resolution. But despite the new judicial wand, the Saboya do not intend to surrender, according to Manuel Filiberto de Savoya, the current head of the Italian royal house after The death of his father, Víctor Manuel de Savoya, In February 2024. This was recorded through a declaration signed by the family lawyer, Sergio Orlandi, who shared They stories Instagram. “The heirs of MS the king of Italy Humberto II expected the result of this sentence and finally believe that it is necessary to resort to the European Court of Human Rights, so that they can examine and accept all requests”, read the letter. At the end of the note, Savoy warned that they also intend to ask the Italian state of “return of all the properties belonging to the family”.
Until now, the chest with the jewels, including, for example, a rare pink diamond mounted on a ring -shaped Sirway or the famous Tiara with a Saboya knot Head of Humberto I to Muse’s jewels of Turin, was opened only once. It was in 1976, with the authorization of a judge, to catalog the pieces and for fear that they would be stolen. At the Bulgarian company He faced the experience and determined his value to about 2,000 million Liri – almost 20 million euros in current. Some experts estimate that the current total value of the collection could amount to 300 million euros given its historical importance and that the treasure could even exceed that figure in an auction.
In 2021, the ex -royal family presented a formal request for the first time for the return of these precious pieces, but was immediately rejected. He tried a year later, but he didn’t have an effect. “They are jewelry of great importance, with a high historical and economic value”, Orlarandi, legal representative of Savoy, defended in 2022, In statements to this newspaper. In the deed of delivery of jewels to the Bank of Italy, it was indicated that they must be kept and “maintained available for those who have the right to them” and the descendants of Humberto II are covered by it to affirm that they are those who have that right. “According to the regulations, the bank is the custodian and must return the jewels to the depositors, the heirs,” said the lawyer in 2022.
