Guillaume Dominguez
modified to
7:43 a.m., September 19, 2022
Seeing the images of Elizabeth II’s coffin, you must have noticed the queen’s crown on it, with its 2,800 diamonds including the Koh-i-Noor, one of the most precious in the world. For a few days, the presence of this stone on the royal crown has been talking about on social networks.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II will take place this Monday at Westminster Abbey in London. The queen’s coffin is currently on display there and accessible to the public to allow the British to pay their last respects. A coffin, on which was placed the crown of the Queen of England, one of the jewels of the royal family, set with 2,800 diamonds including one of the most precious in the world, the Koh-i-Noor. A stone that has been controversial for several days, with a hashtag on social networks.
A value of 170 million euros
The hashtag #Koh-i-Noor has been relayed on Twitter tens of thousands of times since the death of Queen Elizabeth II. It is a diamond of almost 106 carats, whose gross value is estimated at 170 million euros, to which must be added the historical value. The problem is that it actually belongs to India, at least that’s what several senior Indian dignitaries claim, supported by a majority of the country’s population. They claim rightful ownership of the stone and demand its return. A recurring controversy that has lasted since India’s independence in 1947.
To better understand the context, we must take a leap into history, where we find the first written traces of Koh-i-noor in the chronicles of Babur, an Indian prince, founder of the Mongol Empire. He writes there that the diamond then belongs to the king of India. The Koh-i-Noor then passed from one dynasty to another between India and Afghanistan before being confiscated by the British crown in 1849.