Marie-Amélie's Sapphire Tiara
A First Empire tiara of deep-blue Ceylon sapphires and a thousand diamonds, worn by two queens of France.
Part of a magnificent sapphire parure, the tiara is set with 24 deep-blue Ceylon sapphires framed by more than a thousand diamonds, mounted in gold. The complete set also includes a necklace, earrings, brooches, a comb and bracelets.
Most likely first owned by Empress Joséphine, the parure passed to her daughter Hortense de Beauharnais, who sold it in 1821 to King Louis-Philippe. It then belonged to his wife, Queen Marie-Amélie — giving the set its double royal name, Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
The Louvre acquired the parure in 1985, and it joined the French Crown Jewels in the Galerie d'Apollon — one of the finest surviving ensembles of early nineteenth-century French jewellery.
- 💎TypeSapphires & diamonds · gold
- 👑OriginParis · First Empire
- 📅Dateearly 19th century
- 🏛️RoomGalerie d'Apollon
- 📍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.