Shocking news yesterday! Following the theft of the French Crown Jewels from the the Musée du Louvre last year, Queen Nazli’s iconic Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace was stolen from display at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna!
Austrian police are hunting two men alleged to have stolen a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds that was on loan to a museum in Vienna and once belonged to Egyptian royalty.
Authorities in the capital released pictures of the suspects captured by security cameras during the heist at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), amid a rash of spectacular smash-and-grab thefts from European cultural institutions.
The unmasked men bought tickets to the exhibition before shattering a glass display case with a hammer during opening hours on Thursday afternoon and making off with the diamond necklace.
MAK said the piece had been snatched from a jewellery exhibition that had been on display since June, featuring more than 300 works by the French designers Van Cleef & Arpels. No one was hurt, although there were several witnesses in the room at the time.
In 1939, Queen Mother Nazli of Egypt commissioned a new Diamond Parure from Van Cleef & Arpels to celebrate the Wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia of Egypt, to the Shah of Iran, when she also ordered another Van Cleef & Arpels Parure for her daughter. The Parure included the massive Tiara set with over 700 diamonds and a magnificent Bib Necklace, containing around 600 diamonds, in the Art Deco style with baguette diamonds topped with rows and rows of brilliants.
Queen Nazli first wore the Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace for the Wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia of Egypt, to the future Shah of Iran, before wearing the complete Parure for the Wedding Banquet at the Abdeen Palace in Cairo.
Queen Nazli took her Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Tiara and Necklace to Tehran, where she first wore the Parure for a Banquet hosted by King Reza Shah of Iran at the White Palace in Tehran, before it was worn for another splendid Gala Banquet.
Queen Mother Nazli also wore the Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace with her older Diamond Tiara for several occasions, including during the celebrations of the Wedding of the Shah of Iran and her daughter, Princess Fawzia of Egypt, in 1939.
Through the 1940s, Queen Nazli frequently wore her Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Tiara and Necklace for portraits and Galas, including the Birthday Galas of her son, King Farouk, as well as other Court Ceremonies.
Queen Nazli also wore the Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Tiara and Necklace for a series of portraits taken soon before her left Egypt with her jewels and a large sum of money for medical appointments in the United States in 1948. She would never return.
In 1950, Queen Nazli wore her Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Tiara and Necklace when she presided over the Wedding of her youngest daughter, Princess Fathia, and her political advisor, Riyad Ghali, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, for which she was exiled by King Farouk and stripped of her allowance, settling in Los Angeles.
By 1975, the former Queen Nazli was forced to Auction much of her Jewellery Collection at Sotheby’s Parke Bernet in New York, with the Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Tiara fetching $127,500 while the Necklace sold for $140,000. While the Necklace reappeared at Auction in 2015, the current location of the Van Cleef & Arpels Tiara is unknown.
The necklace sold to a private collector for $140,000 and wasn’t seen again till 2015 when it came up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York, where it was bought by Van Cleef & Arpels for $4.3 million, and presented it as part of its Milan exhibition, Time, Nature & Love.
Queen Nazli’s Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace was most recently worn by her great-granddaughter, Amina El-Demirdash, on the cover of Vogue Arabia in 2018.
In 2026, Queen Nazli’s Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace was stolen while on display at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna
Van Cleef & Arpels Tiara | Diamond Tiara | Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace
Van Cleef & Arpels Tiara
Queen Nazli’s Diamond Tiara
Queen Nazli’s Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace
Queen Farida’s Diamond Peacock Tiara
Art Deco Floral Tiara
Art Deco Diamond Chandelier Earrings
Princess Fawzia’s Van Cleef & Arpels Tiara
Princess Faiza’s Art Deco Emerald Necklace
Queen Nazli’s Diamond Tiara
Empress Farah’s Crown
Noor-ul-Ain Tiara
Empress Farah’s Seven Emerald Tiara
Princess Soraya’s Emerald Tiara
Empress Eugenie’s Emeralds
Empress Farah’s Art Deco Diamond Tiara
Empress Farah’s Turquoise Tiara
Empress Farah’s Diamond Tiara
Empress Farah’s Yellow Diamond Tiara
In 1939, Queen Mother Nazli commissioned a new Diamond Parure from Van Cleef & Arpels to celebrate the Wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia of Egypt, to the Shah of Iran, when she also ordered another Van Cleef & Arpels Parure for her daughter. The Parure included the massive Tiara and this magnificent Bib Necklace, with nearly 220 carats of diamonds, in the Art Deco style.
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Queen Nazli wore her Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond frequently after she received it, starting from the Shah of Iran and Princess Fawzia’s Wedding Banquet in 1939, and the Parure remained with her for decades after being exiled by her son King Farouk, until she made penniless by her son-in-law, when Queen Nazli was forced to Auction much of her jewellery collection at Sotheby’s Parke Bernet in 1975.
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The necklace sold to a private collector for $140,000 and wasn’t seen again till 2015 when it came up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York, where it was bought by Van Cleef & Arpels for $4.3 million, and presented it as part of its Milan exhibition, Time, Nature & Love. Queen Nazli’s Van Cleef & Arpels Diamond Necklace was also worn by her great-granddaughter, Amina El-Demirdash, on the cover of Vogue Arabia last year.
