A history mystery has been solved after a golf-ball sized diamond reappeared after 100 years in an unusual location.
The 27-gram Florentine diamond belonged to the Habsburg family who ruled Austria for more than six centuries.
Disappearing during the Second World War, and the subject of many rumours since, the diamond has now reappeared in a bank vault in Canada.
When Charles I of Austria's monarchy fell in 1918, he went into exile and sent the diamond, along with other precious royal jewels, to Switzerland for safe keeping.
After the monarch's death on Madeira, his wife Zita of Bourbon-Parma and her children moved to Spain and then Belgium.
But as Nazi rule spread across Europe, Zita and her eldest son, Otto von Habsburg, were vocal critics of Adolf Hitler.
Otto was declared an enemy of the state when the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938 and Zita was forced to flee Europe two years later.
According to family members, Zita travelled to the US with her jewels in a cardboard suitcase, and then reached Quebec in Canada.
PICTURED: A replica of the Florentine Diamond
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One of Charles I's grandsons, Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, said: "My grandmother felt very safe. She could breathe finally.
"I assume that, at that stage, the little suitcase when into a bank safe, and that was it. And in that bank safe, it just stayed."
In 1953 Zita returned to Europe, and she died in 1989 aged 96.
However, throughout the rest of her life, the diamond stayed in Canada, unbeknownst to the rest of the world.
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PICTURED: Charles I of Austria and his wife Zita of Bourbon-Parma
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Mr Habsburg-Lothringen added: "I think she wanted to make sure that it was not in her lifetime.
"I have the feeling she was very glad that some important objects of the family are something that she had saved.
"That was historically very important for her. Because she was somebody who was thinking very much in historic terms."
Christoph Kochert, whose family has run one of the oldest jewellers in Austria for generations, verified the diamond's authenticity.
PICTURED: Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen and other members of the Habsburg family at Otto von Habsburg's funeral in 2011
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As well as using an electronic tester, he told the New York Times that the jewel's cut pattern matched "almost exactly to representations in historical sources".
Remaining members of the Habsburg family want the diamond to be displayed in Canada to show their gratitude to the country which sheltered the former Queen and her children.
However, Austria has launched an "immediate review" to determine if the diamond belongs to the country.
Austrian Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler said: "If it turns out that the Florentine diamond is the property of the Republic of Austria, I will initiate the process of returning the jewel."