Airport Sells Off Duchess’s Lost Diamond Tiara
18th June 2012
The Duchess lost a Victorian headpiece and a Cartier brooch along with three other pieces worth a total of £100,000 in 2006. The items went missing as she returned to Clan Campbell’s ancestral home, Inveraray Castle.
Despite reporting the loss to the police and informing the Art Loss Register (ALR), they could not be traced until the Duchess, 68, saw her missing brooch in a catalogue for Scottish auction house Lyon and Turnbull, the Independent reported.
After the ALR investigated, it emerged the airport’s owner, BAA, had found the jewellery just months after it went missing and sold it to a diamond merchant for less than £5,000. The proceeds were given to charity.
Yet another reason to stay away from commercial airlines.