And suddenly in 1857 the Great Mutiny broke out; primarily in the capital city of Delhi. The mutineers, using him as a totem, proclaimed him emperor of India against his will. He held no power whatsoever and could not repress the massacres. The English however took the situation in hand; they crushed the rebels and blamed the mutiny on Shah Bahadur. He was shut into the tomb belonging to his distant and glorious ancestor Humayun along with nineteen of his sons who were executed by the English. He himself was sent into exile in Burma where he could only write one last poem before passing away.
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THE DIWAN AND THE DANCER
9 November 2018 - 1 min
In Queen Ahilya’s inner circle there was a diwan, a minister of whom she was particularly fond. His name was Boliya Sarkar Chatri. She found him so remarkable that she offered him one of her relatives, a princess from Indore, in matrimony: but the diwan was smitten with a beautiful and loving dancer. He…
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THE BEGUM
24 October 2018 - 1 min
During one of my trips to India, I met a rather unique maharani. Her husband owned India’s most beautiful library, which was filled with ancient manuscripts about medicine and botany. She was short and round. She wore real Christmas decorations wrapped around her neck as a sort of necklace. And yet on each of her…
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THE MAHARAJAH OF GWALIOR AND THE BANDITS
12 August 2018 - 2 mins
Many decades ago, we had been the guests of the sumptuous Maharajah of Gwalior, government minister and huge personality. He had told us of his dacoits. They were the local bandits that occupied the savannah. They were organized in gangs, the most famous of the time lead by a woman, Phoolan Devi, which had been…
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MUMBAI, TAJ MAHAL PALACE HOTEL
10 July 2018 - 2 mins
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai is probably one of the most famous palaces of India. It dates back to the 20th century and remains by far one of my favourite hotels of the country, and one of my favourite hotel worldwide, due to its extraordinary location by the ocean, extravagant and sumptuous architecture,…
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RUMI
28 October 2019 - 5 mins
Later, much later, I discovered Rumi. He became my hero because he represented an Islam vastly different from the Islam we are presented with these days. He was born in Afghanistan, in the city of Balkh, in the 13th century. His father was already a great mystic. One day, he took to the pulpit of…
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TSARITSYNO PARK
4 April 2018 - 1 min
It was just given back to the public recently, but Aimone, my son-in-law, had long known it as a Romanesque ruin through which he enjoyed taking strolls, as the palace is surrounded by a sumptuous park with water features, an island and a dock marked by marble sphinxes. In fact, the tsarina Catherine II the…
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Portrait of the Princess of Zanzibar and an African Lady-in-waiting
7 December 2017 - 1 min
By Walter Frier This canvas is to be sold at Sotheby’s in London on December 7th 2017. In 1628, Captain John Henderson of Fordell, who had been travelling through Africa for many years, was captured by Barbarians and taken to the island of Zanzibar, where a Moorish king reigned. The king’s daughter fell madly in…
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THE MAXIMILIAN EMPEROR AND THE CURSED DIAMONDS
29 September 2017 - 3 mins
As usual, I was spending this Saturday morning in New York, going round auction halls. On Christie’s Park Avenue, one can find magnificent jewellery on display. My friend François, one of the world’s greatest experts in the field, invited me to follow him into his office. He knew that I was an enthusiast and handed…
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The Massacre’s Surviving Cross
22 December 2021 - 2 mins
One July night in 1918, Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra, their five children and a few servants and loyal companions were murdered, as everyone knows, in the cellar of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. A few days later, the White Army liberated the city from the Bolsheviks. Then began the investigation into the imperial family’s…
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A Great-Uncle’s Treasure
11 December 2021 - 2 mins
The other day, I went to the American hospital for a check-up. I came across Dr Ribadeau-Dumas. I remembered his surname because it was the same as one of my schoolmates as a child. He remembered me because he examined my arteries ten years ago. “You gave me the book about your great-uncle that you…
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THE CASTLE OF TREASURE
21 September 2021 - 3 mins
Alexander was a lawyer at a Swiss bank in Geneva. He was immensely bored of it, as we well understand. One day, he dropped everything and took his family away to a new life. With his initiation, they purchased a large castle in the south of France, in Ariège, in the middle of a little-known…
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THE TZAR’S TREASURE
1 December 2020 - 6 mins
At the beginning of 1917, Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children found themselves left with a handful of loyal servants who refused to abandon them when they were imprisoned in their home at Alexander Palace. Then, in July of that year, the interim government decided to send the Russian Imperial Family…