Vita gazette – Offspring of Italy’s last king sue state in battle to reclaim crown jewels. King Umberto II descendants take legal action over treasure kept in the Bank of Italy deposit box for 76 years. The first hearing will be held in Rome court on 7 June. Those suing the Italian State are: Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia, son of Umberto II; three daughters, Maria Gabriella, Maria Pia and Maria Beatrice…

The Savoy Family, which has claimed rights on the jewellery delivered to the Central Bank of Italy for a while after Italy’s transition from the monarchy to the republican regime, had issued a “return the jewels within 10 days” warning to the rejection they received from the Italian state. Afterwards, mediation meetings were held between the parties, but as expected, the king’s heirs did not get the result they expected. Since brooches, necklaces, jewellery with more than 6,000 diamonds and 2,000 pearls on tiaras were not returned, this time they went to court.

Whose is the Royal Treasure?

We recall that Umberto II was the last King of Italy, from 9 May to 18 June 1946. Due to the very short duration of his reign, just over a month, he was nicknamed King of May. In fact, on June 2, 1946, a referendum took place to choose between monarchy or republic. The majority in favour of the republican solution was about two million valid votes. On 13 June the Council of Ministers transferred the functions of provisional head of state to Alcide De Gasperi. With the fall of the monarchy, the crown treasure passed to the Italian Republic, as required by the Constitution in the XIII transitional and final provision, which states: “The assets, existing in the national territory, of the former kings of the House of Savoy, of their spouses and their male descendants, are advocates of the state.

For the return of the jewels kept through Nazionale, a registered letter was sent to the three entities defined as interlocutors in the mediation on November 29, 2021, by the lawyer Orlandi and a request for restitution was made. The answer was rejected twenty-four later, on November 30th. Subsequently, they warned the state to “return the jewellery within 10 days”. After this reply was also rejected and the mediation negotiation between the parties ended negatively, the final phase of the process was started.