Empress Eugenie’s Pearl Tiara was a gift to Empress Eugenie from her future husband, Emperor Napoleon III.
It was made by Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier with stones that used to belong to Empress Marie Louise, the wife of Emperor Napoleon I, and Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême, the only surviving child of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. In total, there are more than 200 pearls and almost 2000 diamonds in this tiara. The base of the tiara is silver.
Despite the tiara being a wedding, it became part of the French royal collection. This meant that the tiara stayed in France after the royals were again exiled. It went on display several before being auctioned off by the French government. It was bought by Albert, 8th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, for his future wife, Archduchess Margarethe Klementine of Austria, in 1890. The last Thurn and Taxis bride to wear it was Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau when she married Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, in 1980.1
It was Gloria who sold the tiara following her husband’s death in 1992. The Friends of the Louvre paid around a million dollars and the tiara is now on permanent display in the Louvre Museum.2
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