【Spain】Zapatero’s Jewelry: €278,000 Emerald Necklace; €70,000 Sapphire Earrings…

Jewelry store Ansorena concludes that the pieces seized from the former Prime Minister of the Government are worth €1,323,915 as they contain authentic precious stones, as El Confidencial reported.

By Beatriz Parera, José María Olmo
12/06/2026 – 13:17
EC EXCLUSIVE
The appraisal of the hundred jewelry pieces seized from José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in a safe attributes an astronomical value to the pieces: €1,323,915. The analysis was carried out by the jewelry store Ansorena and has already been incorporated into the summary of the Plus Ultra case.
Among the jewelry that the former Prime Minister of the Government hid in his office on Ferraz Street, three sets stand out, each consisting of five elements (necklace, bracelet, ring, and earrings) that incorporate diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, as El Confidencial reported last Monday. The appraisal attributes the highest values precisely to these objects.

The most expensive piece is a necklace appraised at €278,000, made of 18-karat white gold, with numerous diamonds and two emeralds from Zambia. The second most expensive object is another necklace worth €220,000 that displays 13 sapphires originating from Thailand, surrounded by diamonds, “forming a delicate openwork vegetal design.”
In third place is another necklace that amounts to €155,000. It incorporates five “natural oval-cut rubies treated with lead glass,” accompanied by brilliant-cut diamonds. The next piece in the price ranking is a bracelet that Ansorena estimates at €95,000. It is also made of 18-karat white gold and is set with three natural emeralds from Zambia, in addition to diamonds.

Also notable are another bracelet worth €80,000 with “openwork oval motifs with centers formed by 7 mixed pear-cut sapphires” originating from Thailand, and a third bracelet worth €72,000 with two “natural oval-cut rubies treated with lead glass” and studded with several brilliants.
The values reached by a “cocktail” ring of 18-karat white gold with “a central natural emerald, mixed pear cut,” amounting to €85,000, are also striking; a “pair of long earrings of two bodies in 18-karat white gold” with an “upper body in the shape of a leaf and a lower pendulous body, both decorated with four natural emeralds” from Zambia, worth €80,000; and another pair of earrings “in the shape of a Chandelier with 8 natural mixed pear-cut sapphires, origin Thailand, accompanied by brilliant-cut diamonds forming an openwork vegetal design,” valued at €70,000.
In addition to the pieces from the three most opulent sets, there are other valuable objects, such as a “bracelet made of 22-karat yellow gold with a central rosette and two side rosettes, with centers of cabochon-cut rubies and openwork decoration decorated with Dutch rose-cut diamonds” worth €11,800; and a “necklace formed by 12 strands of faceted green aventurine beads joined together by three spacer pieces in the form of an openwork medallion of 22-karat yellow gold” appraised at €4,000.

But, in general, beyond the twenty most striking pieces, the rest of Zapatero’s collection is of little importance. In the least valued group are pearl necklaces, watches, tie clips, crosses, and medals that Ansorena places at around €200 or €500. Some of these items, of traditional Spanish style, do not even have a market value.
The valuation fits the explanation given by the former Prime Minister of the Government after the discovery of the jewelry. He assured that they came from family inheritances and gifts. UDEF investigators suspect that the less valuable items could have been inherited and, on the contrary, the sets with high jewelry precious stones would be gifts that Zapatero would have received as illegal commissions to reward his political and commercial influence.

The appraisal of the hundred jewelry pieces seized from José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in a safe attributes an astronomical value to the pieces: €1,323,915. The analysis was carried out by the jewelry store Ansorena and has already been incorporated into the summary of the Plus Ultra case.