The Strangest Jewelry Theft Story.. A Single Bite of an Apple Reveals the Mystery of a Stolen Pink Diamond

- Susan Schiltz did not expect that a bite from an apple would lead her to discover one of the most famous lost diamonds in France. In December 1926, while she was working as a room cleaner in a hotel in the French capital Paris, she noticed an apple inside a suitcase belonging to two young men staying at the hotel.

She took it and took a bite, before her teeth hit a hard object that nearly broke them. But what she found was not just a stone, but the "Grand Conde" diamond, one of the rarest diamonds in France, which the police had been searching for weeks.

Two months before that discovery, two amateur thieves had carried out a bold robbery at the historic "Château de Chantilly," managing to seize more than 75 pieces of jewelry stored inside the castle museum, valued at about 3 million dollars at the time. The scale of the operation and the sensitivity of its contents raised the suspicions of the police, who initially believed that professional thieves with exceptional climbing skills were behind it, or perhaps museum employees who participated in its execution.

But the truth was less complicated; Leon Kaufer and Emile Sutter were merely former French pilots in their early twenties, and they did not possess the experience suggested by their theft. Although they succeeded in getting the jewelry out of the castle, they faced the biggest obstacle in how to sell it, as the stolen jewelry was not easy to dispose of, and the "Grand Conde" diamond was nearly impossible to sell.

Before their arrest, the two thieves managed to obtain only 30,000 francs from what they had stolen, equivalent to about 1,200 dollars at that time. Their theft of this particular diamond constituted the biggest mistake they made.

The pink diamond, weighing 9.01 carats, was so famous that no jeweler dared to handle it, fearing it would lead to accusations of involvement in the crime. Matthew Deldick, the chief curator of heritage and director of the "Conde" Museum, stated that every police officer across Europe was searching for it.

However, the irony is that this precious diamond eventually appeared in an unexpected place, inside an apple, in the mouth of a chambermaid at a hotel in Paris. In October, the natural pink diamond will be displayed at the "Château de Chantilly" to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its theft.

Deldick said this will be the first time in a century that the diamond will be exhibited in a major public exhibition. The diamond has been owned by the Conde family since 1740.

Its exact geographical origin remains unknown, with suggestions pointing to areas ranging from India to Borneo and Brazil. However, archival documents show that it arrived in France, where its first known owner was Louis Henry de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, who served as Prime Minister between 1723 and 1726.

The diamond was originally set in a medal belonging to the Order of the Golden Fleece, one of the highest orders of chivalry, before being removed and later set in a ring. An 18th-century written document stipulates that the diamond should be passed down in turn among the firstborn sons of the Conde family.

Measures to protect the diamond from resale or theft Delidik refused to specify the value of the diamond or the cost of insuring it, but he emphasized that pink diamonds are the rarest and most expensive in the market. In 1983, a pink diamond of similar size was valued between $500,000 and $600,000, while a much larger pink diamond sold in 2010 for $46 million.

However, neither of them carries the same historical legacy that the Conde diamond enjoys. The impact of the diamond's theft is still fresh in Delidik's mind, especially after another theft that occurred at the Louvre Museum in October 2025, during which thieves seized a number of priceless jewels, many of which are still missing.

The incident nearly led him to postpone or cancel the diamond exhibition, as he hesitated over this decision for weeks. However, the organizers of the exhibition decided to move forward, taking measures to protect the diamond from resale, and enlisting experts in gemology from France, Canada, and Switzerland to conduct scientific studies and analyses of its chemical composition, rarity, purity, and density.

Although displaying such a rare piece to the public undoubtedly carries risks, Delidik affirmed that this should not be a reason to retreat in the face of the possibility of theft, especially in light of the increasing number of heists targeting valuable jewelry.