【Spain】Lequio Family Puts Valuable Jewels of Sandra Torlonia, Inherited from Queen Victoria Eugenia, Up for Auction

One of Spain’s most important auction houses is in possession of highly valuable relics from the Lequio family that once belonged to Queen Victoria Eugenia.
Queen Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg died at the age of 81 from irreversible liver dysfunction, surrounded by her children and grandchildren in April 1969 at her Vielle Fontaine residence in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her jewelry box held a collection of exclusive pieces of incalculable value, a large portion of which she herself, through her will, decided should go to the Spanish Royal Family. However, others went to other family members and ended up in the hands of the Lequios, who have now decided to put them up for auction at one of the world’s most renowned auction houses.
The auction house Christie’s has put up for auction until next May a brooch made with two emeralds that belonged to Queen Victoria Eugenia and which later ended up in the hands of Alessandro Lequio’s mother, who was the last person seen wearing it. Apparently, this exclusive piece was inherited by Infanta Beatriz, Princess of Civitella-Cesi. After her death in 2002, this jewel went to her eldest daughter, Alessandra Torlonia y Borbón, known as Sandra Torlonia, mother of Alessandro Lequio.

The brooch that is up for auction is a piece formed by two Colombian emeralds surrounded by old-cut diamonds. Later, around the first quarter of the 20th century, a pin was added to it. Precisely, Alessandro Lequio’s mother was the last person seen wearing it. She wore it at the wedding of the television collaborator and his wife, María Palacios, in November 2008. Since then, its trail had been lost until now, when it has ended up at an auction house.
As mentioned earlier, this brooch was part of Queen Victoria Eugenia’s jewelry collection and had matching emerald earrings. However, the trail of these earrings was lost after Queen Victoria Eugenia’s death, and for now, only the brooch is available for bidding, so it is unknown what happened to the earrings.
Offers can already be made to the auction house to acquire the brooch that belonged to Queen Victoria Eugenia’s jewelry collection. It is estimated that its price would be around 200,000 euros, meaning only a few will be able to attempt to acquire this historic piece.

Now, King Felipe VI could recover this jewel that belonged to his great-grandmother. It would be a spectacular gift for Queen Letizia on the occasion of their 20th wedding anniversary, which will take place on May 22.
The royal jewelry box already holds the known ‘joyas de pasar’ (heirloom jewels), which Letizia has used on the most special occasions. These are the jewels that the wife of Alfonso XIII bequeathed to those who would become the Queens of Spain. It is a historic collection consisting of a tiara, brooches, or even valuable necklaces and bracelets that in the future will form part of Princess Leonor’s inheritance.

The term ‘joyas de pasar’ was coined by Doña María de las Mercedes de Borbón, daughter-in-law of the late Queen Victoria Eugenia and mother of King Don Juan Carlos. With this name, she referred to those jewels that her husband, Don Juan de Borbón, had inherited from his mother, Queen Victoria Eugenia. The Countess of Barcelona chose this name because in the will, Ena, as she was familiarly known, had written that she “would wish, if possible, that they be awarded to my son Don Juan, asking him to pass them on to my grandson Don Juan Carlos.”
With this decision, Queen Victoria Eugenia intended that this exclusive collection of jewels, consisting of a total of eight pieces, would be passed down from generation to generation, always in the possession of the head of the Spanish Royal House. For this reason, the mother of the emeritus king decided to baptize them as “joyas de pasar.” However, it must be taken into account that when Queen Victoria Eugenia wrote her last wishes or even died, the royal family remained in exile and Spain was a dictatorship with Francisco Franco in power.