Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Queen Olga tries to sell jewels

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 May 5, 1921

Queen Olga of Greece found herself in a bit of trouble recently concerning the sale of one of her jewels, reports the Chicago Daily Tribune. She had entrusted to a young man a brooch, which he was going to sell in the United States. But when he arrived in the United States, he was arrested and imprisoned for twenty days for failing to declare the brooch. He was also fined $700 for the "foreign value" of the brooch. The captain of the ship was penalized for failing to inform passengers about American customs requirements.

The New York Times reports that the vessel was the King Alexander, and the young man was a Greek officer, who had served as a mate aboard the ship. The emerald brooch was confiscated by the New York Customs House. According to reports in the Parisian media, Queen Olga is trying to "find some means of retrieving" the brooch which has been in her family for more than one hundred years.

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