Empress Eugénie’s Tiara
A shimmering pearl-and-diamond diadem — a wedding gift from Napoleon III to his empress.
This pearl and diamond diadem was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III from the crown jeweller Gabriel Lemonnier as part of a parure marking his 1853 marriage to Empress Eugénie. It is set in silver with 212 pearls and 1,998 diamonds, several of the pearls having previously belonged to earlier French empresses.
After the fall of the Second Empire the diadem passed into private hands, remaining with the Thurn und Taxis family until 1992, when it was acquired for the Louvre through the generosity of the Société des Amis du Louvre. It has since been one of the highlights of the Galerie d’Apollon.
October 2025 — the diadem was among the pieces taken in the theft from the Galerie d’Apollon and, at the time of writing, had not been recovered. The photograph shown here was taken during an earlier visit to the gallery.
- 💎TypeTiara / diadem · pearls & diamonds
- 💎JewellerGabriel Lemonnier
- 📅Date1853
- 💠Set with212 pearls · 1,998 diamonds
- 🏛️RoomGalerie d’Apollon · Denon wing
- 📍LocationMusée du Louvre, 75001 Paris
About the Louvre
The Louvre is the world’s largest and most-visited art museum. Once the fortress and royal palace of the kings of France, it opened as a public museum in 1793 and today holds some 35,000 works spanning antiquity to the mid-19th century — from Egyptian antiquities and Greek marbles to the French Crown Jewels.
Since 1989, visitors enter beneath the glass Pyramid designed by architect I. M. Pei, which opens onto the museum’s three wings — Denon, Sully and Richelieu — arranged around the Cour Napoléon. The Louvre stands in the 1st arrondissement along the Rue de Rivoli, beside the Tuileries Gardens and the Seine.
The museum is open every day except Tuesday, from 9 am to 6 pm (with a late evening on Fridays). Timed tickets are strongly recommended and can be booked on the official site, louvre.fr; under-18s enter free, as do EU residents under 26. Nearest métro: Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre (lines 1 and 7).
Where to see it — the Louvre and around
The Louvre (pulsing marker) at the centre. Toggle the filters to explore the heritage, gardens, restaurants and activities of the 1st arrondissement — and the hotels around it.