6Empress Eugénie’s crown (recovered, damaged) — the irresistible headline
The piece widely reported as recovered near the museum — but broken — is believed to be the crown made for Empress Eugénie, consort of Napoleon III. Regardless of its physical condition, the object is a 19th-century ceremonial crown studded with large historic gemstones and of enormous historical and cultural value.
Crowns like this are essentially priceless for the state: their value is primarily symbolic and archival, not a liquid-market price. The fact it was dropped while fleeing offers both hope and heartbreak — fragments can be forensically examined, but the crown’s intrinsic historic context is the real loss if it were permanently altered or dismantled.
