Stolen Royal Snuffboxes Recovered, Back on Display in London

When thieves wielding axes and baseball bats smashed their way into a Paris museum last November, they made off with seven priceless snuffboxes from the 1700s. But this story has a happy ending: two of those treasures are now back where they belong, greeting visitors at London's Victoria & Albert Museum.

The recovered boxes tell remarkable stories beyond their glittering surfaces. One ornate gold and diamond piece belonged to Catherine the Great, who gave it to Thomas Dimsdale, the British physician who successfully vaccinated her and her son against smallpox. The Russian empress was so grateful she made him a baron and appointed him her personal doctor.

The second box, carved from rare green chrysoprase and studded with diamonds, once belonged to Frederick II of Prussia. The king owned around 300 snuffboxes, but this gemstone variety was clearly his favorite: six of his surviving boxes feature the same striking green stone.

Both boxes suffered some damage during the theft. A few diamonds popped loose from Frederick's box, and the thumbpiece on Catherine's gift was warped and torn. But skilled Parisian craftspeople specializing in historic jewelry stepped in to help.

The restoration team made an interesting choice with Catherine's box. Rather than erasing all traces of the robbery, they left some marks from the thieves' tools visible. Museum curators felt this dramatic chapter had become part of the artifact's already extraordinary history.

Why This Inspires

These aren't just pretty objects. In the 1700s, elaborate snuffboxes were status symbols on par with luxury cars today. French writer Louis Sebastien Le Mercier once quipped that a man with 300 boxes didn't need books, art, or natural history collections.

The silver lining? Restorers got an unprecedented look inside these masterpieces during repairs. The detached diamonds revealed fascinating secrets about 18th-century gem setting techniques that had remained hidden for over 250 years.

The boxes now shine in the newly expanded Gilbert Galleries, part of a collection of more than 200 snuffboxes amassed by collectors Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert starting in the 1960s. Catherine's gift sits beside a portrait of Dr. Dimsdale himself, reuniting the physician with his remarkable reward.

Sadly, a third stolen box featuring a mosaic of two doves remains missing. But museum curator Alice Minter, who called the robbery "any curator's nightmare," can at least celebrate these two homecomings.

Sometimes the most precious treasures find their way back home.