The 9.01-Carat Pink Diamond That Was Hidden Inside an Apple

A Hungry Chambermaid, an Apple, and a Missing Diamond

Suzanne Schiltz was hungry. Cleaning rooms is exhausting work — especially in Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world, even in 1926. So when the hotel chambermaid spotted an apple in the suitcase of two young men one December morning while tidying their room, she took it. She bit down — and her teeth struck something so hard they nearly shattered. Hidden inside the fruit was the Grand Condé, a 9.01-carat pink diamond and one of the rarest gemstones in all of France.

It was also, at that moment, one of the most wanted objects in Europe. Two months earlier, the diamond had vanished in a brazen burglary that had every police force on the continent chasing shadows. That single bite would unravel the whole mystery — and a century later, the story is back in the headlines because the Grand Condé itself is about to step back into public view.

 The Grand Condé pink diamond from top down.

The Grand Condé: France's Rarest Pink Diamond

The Grand Condé is not just any pink diamond. It has belonged to the Condé family since 1740, and while its exact origin remains a mystery — possibly India, Borneo, or Brazil — archival records trace it to France, where its first owner was Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé and prime minister from 1723 to 1726. It was originally set into a medal of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the most prestigious order of knighthood in Europe, before later being mounted onto a ring.

An 18th-century proclamation decreed that every eldest Condé son must, in turn, inherit the diamond. As Mathieu Deldicque, chief heritage curator and director of the Musée Condé, put it, the stone was "part of the symbolic heritage of this family." It even carries a faint whisper of orange within its pink — the kind of living color that, as Deldicque notes, no photograph can truly capture.

The 1926 Heist That Baffled Paris Police

In the autumn of 1926, two amateur thieves robbed the historic Château de Chantilly, about 50 kilometers north of Paris. Armed with little more than a pair of tall ladders, they made off with more than 75 pieces of jewelry from the castle's museum — a haul valued at roughly $3 million at the time. The sheer scale and audacity of the theft led investigators to assume they were hunting seasoned acrobatic masterminds, or perhaps double-crossing museum insiders.

They were neither. Leon Kauffer and Emile Souter were demobilized French aviators in their early twenties — and completely out of their depth. For all their success sneaking the jewels out, they had no idea how to turn them into cash. Before their arrest, the pair managed to fence only about 30,000 francs' worth (roughly $1,200 at the time) of the loot. Their fatal mistake was stealing the Grand Condé: a pink diamond so famous that no jeweler in Europe would touch it for fear of implicating themselves. "Every policeman across Europe was looking for it," Deldicque said.

How an Apple Cracked the Case

Unable to sell their most valuable prize, the thieves resorted to the oldest trick in the book: they hid the diamond where no one would think to look — inside a piece of fruit. It might have worked, too, if not for a hungry chambermaid. When Suzanne Schiltz bit into the apple she'd taken from their hotel room, the concealed stone revealed itself in the most painful way possible. The discovery pointed police straight to the culprits and returned one of France's national treasures to its rightful home.

A hundred years later, it remains one of the most improbable recoveries in the history of jewelry crime — proof that even the most meticulously planned heist can be undone by a snack.

Why Pink Diamonds Command Millions

Natural pink diamonds are among the scarcest gemstones on earth. Their color comes not from trace elements — as it does in blue or yellow diamonds — but from a rare structural quirk in the crystal lattice that scientists still don't fully understand. Fewer than one in ten thousand diamonds shows any color at all, and true pinks are rarer still. That scarcity only intensified after the 2020 closure of Australia's Argyle mine, which had produced the vast majority of the world's pink diamonds.

The numbers tell the story. Back in 1983, a pink diamond of similar size to the Grand Condé was valued between $500,000 and $600,000. By 2010, a much larger pink diamond sold for $46 million. And the Grand Condé carries something no auction stone can: three centuries of unbroken royal provenance. That combination of natural rarity and historical weight is exactly why fancy-color stones have become such coveted collectibles — a theme we explored when a rare yellow diamond headlined a recent Sotheby's sale. For collectors drawn to color, our colored diamonds collection showcases the same category of stone in wearable form.

A Century Later, Museums Are Still on Edge

The timing of this exhibition is not lost on its curator. It has been less than a year since the October 2025 Louvre burglary, in which several priceless French crown jewels were stolen from the world's most famous museum — many still unrecovered. And less than two weeks before the Grand Condé news broke, thieves smashed their way to a $4 million diamond necklace once owned by Egyptian royalty in a daylight raid in Vienna, a story we covered in our report on the Vienna museum heist.

Deldicque admits he hesitated for weeks over whether to postpone the showcase. Instead, the museum leaned into transparency: with support from L'École, School of Jewelry Arts, gemologists from France, Canada, and Switzerland conducted an exhaustive scientific study of the diamond's composition, clarity, and density — creating a publicly available "identity card" that makes the stone impossible to sell anonymously. "You can't do anything with it," Deldicque said, "because it's too popular."

What This Story Tells Collectors

Beyond the delicious twist of an apple and a chambermaid, the Grand Condé's return carries a real message for anyone who loves fine jewelry. First, provenance is priceless. A stone with documented history — who owned it, where it lived, what it survived — will always command a premium over an identical stone with no story. Second, color is the ultimate luxury. As natural pink and other fancy-color diamonds grow scarcer, their value has proven remarkably resilient, which is why so many serious buyers now treat them as both adornment and asset.

And third, the museum's "identity card" approach points to where the whole industry is heading: full documentation and traceability. Whether you're buying a historic colored diamond or a new engagement ring, the paperwork behind the stone matters as much as the sparkle in front of you. That is the standard we hold every piece to at Forever Rox.

Colored Diamonds, Guided by Expertise

You don't need a royal château to own a piece of history. At Forever Rox Fine Jewelry in Incline Village on the shores of Lake Tahoe, we've helped collectors and couples find rare natural colored diamonds — pinks, yellows, and blues — along with certified white diamonds and one-of-a-kind custom designs since 1984. Every stone we sell is 100% natural and fully documented, so you always know the story behind your sparkle. If a fancy-color diamond has ever caught your eye, our team can help you find — or design — the right one.

Grand Condé Pink Diamond FAQ