A hungry chambermaid bit into an apple and helped solve a high-wire diamond heist

EDITOR’S NOTE: Curio is a CNN Style series spotlighting small objects and the big ideas behind them.

Suzanne Schiltz was hungry. Cleaning is exhausting business, especially as a hotel chambermaid in Paris — one of the most visited cities in the world, even in 1926. So when she saw an apple in the suitcase of two young men one December while neatening up their room, she took it. After a bite, Schiltz’ teeth struck something so hard they almost shattered: the Grand Condé diamond. It was one of the rarest gemstones in France. And it was also missing.

Two months earlier, a couple of amateur thieves had robbed the historic castle, Château de Chantilly, 50 kilometers north of Paris. They had little more than a pair of tall ladders between them, but the extent of their burglary — more than 75 pieces of jewelry housed inside the castle’s museum, valued at $3,000,000 at the time — led the police to believe the culprits were seasoned acrobatic masterminds, or at least double-crossing museum staff. In fact, Leon Kauffer and Emile Souter were both demobilized French aviators in their early 20s, and well out of their depth. Despite their success in swiping the jewels, they failed to sell them. Before their arrest, Kauffer and Souter had only managed to make 30,000 francs ( about $1,200 at the time ) off the stolen loot. Their biggest mistake was stealing the Grand Condé, a 9.01-carat pink diamond so famous no jeweler would touch it for fear of incrimination. “Every policeman across Europe was looking for it,” said Mathieu Deldicque, chief heritage curator and director of the Musée Condé, in a phone call.

This October, the naturally pink diamond will go on display at the Château de Chantilly to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the theft. It’s also the first time the piece has been shown at a major exhibition open to the public for a century, Deldicque said.

Benjamin Chelly/L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts

The jewel has been in the Condé family’s possession since 1740. While its exact country of origin is still a mystery, with possible regions spanning from India to Borneo to Brazil, archival documents show it traveled to France where its first owner was Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé — the prime minister between 1723 and 1726. The gemstone was originally set in a medal of the Order of the Golden Fleece — the most important order of knighthood — and was later removed to be mounted on a ring. A written proclamation from the 18th century commanded that every eldest Condé son must have their turn inheriting the diamond. “It was part of the symbolic heritage of this family,” Deldicque said.

Although the curator declined to put a price on the diamond or its insurance cost, Deldicque did emphasize that “pink diamonds are the rarest and most expensive on the market.” In 1983, a similar sized gemstone was valued between $500,000 and $600,000, while in 2010, a much larger pink diamond sold for $46 million. Neither have the historical provenance of the Condé diamond, however.

Its theft is still front of Deldicque’s mind. Yes, it’s been 100 years. But it’s also been less than 12 months since another high-profile heist: the Louvre burglary in October 2025 , where several priceless crown jewels were taken from the most famous museum in Paris. Many are still unrecovered. “Lots of historical diamonds were stolen,” he said of the Louvre theft. “We share great solidarity with our colleagues.” That incident almost made Deldicque change his mind on his own showcase, which had already been planned. “I hesitated for many weeks to postpone or to cancel the exhibition,” he said.

But they persevered, and instead did something that likely protected the pink diamond from resale the first time around. With the support of L’École, School of Jewelry Arts, the museum was able to enlist gemologists from France, Canada and Switzerland to conduct extensive studies and scientific analysis on the stone’s chemical composition, rarity, clarity and density. They hope this bank of publicly available information detailing the jewel’s unique specificities makes it easily identifiable, and therefore, unsellable. Kind of like an “identity card,” Deldicque said. “You can’t do anything with it, because it’s too popular,” he said.

Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

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While staging a public exhibition of such a rare piece is undoubtedly a risk, Deldicque insists it’s important to not be put off by the prospect of robbery — which seem to be mounting . Less than two weeks ago, a $4 million diamond necklace once owned by Egyptian royalty was taken in a smash-and-grab robbery in Vienna, Austria.

Beyond the Condé diamond’s historical significance, gemstones themselves “are works of art, and works of nature,” he said. “Diamonds are quite particular. You can’t enjoy them through pictures, videos, photographs and so on. Their color, their light, their presence are actually so strong that you have to see them in real life.” This pink diamond in particular, Deldicque says, even “has a bit of orange in it.”

编者按：Curio 是 CNN Style 的一个系列节目，旨在介绍小型物品及其背后的伟大理念。

苏珊娜·希尔茨饿了。打扫卫生是件累人的事，尤其是在巴黎——即使在1926年，巴黎也是世界上游客最多的城市之一——做酒店女佣更是如此。所以，当她在十二月的一个晚上打扫两个年轻男子的房间时，看到他们行李箱里有个苹果，她就拿了起来。咬了一口后，希尔茨的牙齿碰到了一个硬物，几乎要把它咬碎：那是格兰德·孔代钻石。它是法国最稀有的宝石之一。而且，它也失踪了。

两个月前，两名业余窃贼闯入了位于巴黎以北50公里的尚蒂伊城堡（Château de Chantilly）。他们仅有的工具不过是两架高高的梯子，但盗窃的规模却令人咋舌——城堡博物馆内收藏的75多件珠宝，当时价值高达300万美元——这让警方一度认为他们是身手不凡的盗窃高手，或者至少是背信弃义的博物馆工作人员。事实上，莱昂·考弗（Leon Kauffer）和埃米尔·苏特（Emile Souter）都是二十出头的退役法国飞行员，完全是两个不称职的窃贼。尽管他们成功盗走了珠宝，却未能将其出售。在被捕之前，考弗和苏特仅从赃物中获利3万法郎（当时约合1200美元）。他们犯下的最大错误是偷走了“大孔代钻”，这是一颗重达9.01克拉的粉钻，名气大到没有珠宝商敢碰它，生怕惹上麻烦。“全欧洲的警察都在找它，”孔代博物馆首席文物策展人兼馆长马蒂厄·德尔迪克在电话中说道。

今年十月，这颗天然粉钻将在尚蒂伊城堡展出，以纪念钻石被盗一百周年。德尔迪克表示，这也是一个世纪以来，这颗钻石首次在面向公众的大型展览中展出。

Benjamin Chelly/L'ÉCOLE，珠宝艺术学院

这颗宝石自1740年以来一直由孔代家族拥有。虽然其确切产地至今仍是个谜，可能的来源地包括印度、婆罗洲和巴西等地，但档案文件显示，它曾辗转来到法国，其首位主人是孔代亲王路易·亨利·德·波旁，他于1723年至1726年担任法国首相。这颗宝石最初镶嵌在金羊毛勋章（最高级别的骑士勋章）的奖章上，后来被取下镶嵌在一枚戒指上。一份18世纪的法令规定，孔代家族的每一位长子都必须轮流继承这颗钻石。“它是这个家族象征性遗产的一部分，”德尔迪克说道。

尽管策展人拒绝透露这颗钻石的价格或保险费用，但德尔迪克强调，“粉钻是市场上最稀有、最昂贵的钻石。”1983年，一颗大小相近的宝石估价在50万至60万美元之间；2010年，一颗更大的粉钻以4600万美元的价格售出。然而，这两颗钻石都不具备孔戴钻石那样的历史渊源。

德尔迪克至今仍对钻石失窃事件记忆犹新。没错，已经过去一百年了。但距离另一起轰动一时的盗窃案也还不到一年：2025年10月，卢浮宫被盗，巴黎这座最著名博物馆的多件无价之宝被窃。许多至今仍未追回。“很多历史悠久的钻石都被盗了，”他谈到卢浮宫失窃案时说，“我们与同行们感同身受。”那次事件几乎让德尔迪克改变了他原本计划好的展览。“我犹豫了好几个星期，要不要推迟或取消展览，”他说。

但他们坚持不懈，最终采取的措施很可能在第一次交易时就保护了这颗粉钻免遭转售。在珠宝艺术学院（L'École, School of Jewelry Arts）的支持下，博物馆得以聘请来自法国、加拿大和瑞士的宝石学家，对这颗宝石的化学成分、稀有度、净度和密度进行广泛的研究和科学分析。他们希望这份公开的、详细记录这颗宝石独特特征的信息库，能够使其易于识别，从而避免被转售。德尔迪克说，这就像一张“身份证”。“你拿它没办法，因为它太有名了。”

津野义和/法新社/盖蒂图片社

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举办如此珍贵藏品的公开展览无疑存在风险，但德尔迪克坚持认为，不应因盗窃的可能性而却步——尽管盗窃事件似乎正在增加。就在不到两周前，一条价值400万美元、曾为埃及皇室所有的钻石项链在奥地利维也纳遭遇砸抢，被盗走。

除了康德钻石的历史意义之外，宝石本身“既是艺术品，也是大自然的杰作，”他说道。“钻石非常特别。你无法通过图片、视频、照片等等来欣赏它们。它们的颜色、光泽和存在感如此强烈，你必须亲眼目睹。”德尔迪克说，这颗粉钻尤其“带有一丝橙色”。