Queen Olga's Romanov Diamonds: A Treasure That Survived Revolution and Exile
In 1867, at the tender age of sixteen, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia married King George I of Greece, thus becoming Queen of the Hellenes. Despite her new life in Athens, she maintained a profound connection to her Russian homeland, frequently visiting her family in St. Petersburg.
The magnificent rivière necklace she often wore was a direct link to her imperial origins. A cherished Romanov tradition dictated that young Grand Duchesses received two diamonds on every birthday and name day (the Empress Alexandra made it with pearls instead of diamonds for her daughters). By the age of sixteen, Olga had already amassed a significant collection. In her youth, before they were set into a single piece, she would wear these individual diamonds sewn onto a satin or velvet kokoshnik, a traditional Russian headdress, see below in the picture.
For her wedding, these diamonds were masterfully crafted into the spectacular rivière necklace. For her wedding she got another smaller one, Olga often wore her rivière necklaces together, and in earlier years she was known to pin them in a zig-zag pattern onto a velvet kokoshnik.
History intervened when the outbreak of World War I caught Queen Olga during a visit to Russia. She remained there, witnessing the fall of the Tsarist regime and, from afar, the deposition of her own son, Constantine I, from the Greek throne. While members of the Romanov dynasty were being executed and their possessions confiscated, Olga managed a harrowing escape from Russia in 1919. In a remarkable feat, her priceless jewels, including the famous rivières, were secretly smuggled out of the country.
Reunited with her family in exile, Olga would see her son restored to the throne, only to witness his abdication two years later in favour of his son, George II. His reign, too, was short-lived, ending in another deposition. Queen Olga passed away during this second period of exile. It remains extraordinary that her most important jewels survived the violent upheaval of the Russian Revolution and two separate Greek exiles.
It is believed that Queen Olga gifted the rivière necklace to her granddaughter, Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, upon her marriage to Prince Paul of Yugoslavia in 1923.
In 2006, this piece of imperial history was offered at a Christie’s auction by her descendants, where it fetched a remarkable price of CHF 1,005,600.
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