Marie-Louise's Emerald Necklace
A wedding gift from Napoleon to his empress — a necklace of Colombian emeralds and more than a thousand diamonds.
The necklace was part of an emerald-and-diamond parure given by Napoleon to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria, on their marriage in 1810. It was crafted by the imperial jeweller François-Regnault Nitot and set with 32 emeralds and more than a thousand diamonds.
The deep-green emeralds, mined in Colombia, hang from a lattice of brilliant-cut diamonds in a design of imperial splendour. The parure originally included a matching diadem, earrings and a comb.
The Louvre acquired the necklace and earrings in 2004, and they entered the French Crown Jewels displayed in the Galerie d'Apollon — a rare survival of Napoleonic court jewellery.
- 💎TypeEmeralds & diamonds · gold
- 👑OriginParis · by F.-R. Nitot
- 📅Date1810
- 🏛️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.