Re: Luxembourg: Josephine-Charlotte's jewels indeed auctioned off - more Archived Message
Posted by Henri M on February 10, 2014, 7:20 am, in reply to "Re: Luxembourg: Josephine-Charlotte's jewels indeed auctioned off - more"
In the article by Luxarazzi is stated that Grand Duke Henri wanted his siblings Marie-Astrid, Jean, Margaretha and Guillaume to have a fair share in the inheritance of their mother. As long no special precautions have been made (like handing over possessions into a Foundation or a Trust Fund) the surviving spouse (Grand Duke Jean) and all five children have inheritance rights. As jewels can not be broken in half, it is better to auction them off and to divide the revenues of that auction amongs the beneficiaries of the late Grand Duchess. This is exactly why so many royal collections have fragmented and disappeared. And this is exactly why in the Netherlands and Sweden these Foundations (not only for jewels b.t.w.) have been established. Grand Duke Henri himself has 5 children, so when jewels are still in private ownership, a new fragmentation is around the corner... It was courageous of then Queen Juliana to hand over so many possessions into the hands of legal entities. In essence she was denying her four daughters and their issue a (quite considerable) private wealth in turn for shared wealth for the Royal House as a whole. The private wealth of the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was equally divided amongst his four legal and two illegal daughters. Had the Prince a collection of jewels in his private ownership, then these would have been auctioned off as well or one of the beneficiaries has to "outpay" the five other sisters for the value of the jewels.
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