How spectacular and precious were the diamonds of the French crown, so that Francis I, the King of France, ordered the establishment of a collection to protect them?

The answer is found in the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre Museum, where the Crown Jewels collection and other precious imperial jewels are presented. The collection was established by Francis I, enriched mainly by Louis XVI, and stolen in 1792 to be found again shortly afterwards. The gemstones adorned the symbols of the French monarchy and, since 1976, a systematic effort has been made to locate them and return them to the Louvre collection and the Apollo Gallery.

Until recently, the diamonds were exhibited in display cases which were built in the 1980s and externally resembled the display cases of 1861, created by Charles Gasc.

MUEVO undertook the construction of three new display cases for the Crown Jewels and the renovation of the existing ones, in order to present the collection as a cohesive one, divided into three major groups: the diamonds of the Old Regime before the French Revolution, the diamonds of the First French Empire until the July Monarchy and the jewels of Empress Eugenie.