
Still im glad a trust owns the jewels because that makes keeping them together easier than being personal property.
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If somehow they have been put in some sort of trust or foundation there may be conditions attached that might exclude a sale.
From https://www.habsburg-heritage.com/#PR :
To protect and preserve the cultural and historical significance of the jewelry, the private collection is now held in a Canadian trust, with the direct descendants of Emperor Karl I and Empress Zita as beneficiaries. The collection will remain in Canada for the foreseeable future and will be made accessible to the public as soon as possible.
Why were the items transferred to a trust and this form of ownership chosen?
Under the law of the Province of Quebec, a Canadian trust is the current owner of the objects. The direct descendants of Emperor Karl I and Empress Zita are beneficiaries of this trust. The objects have been transferred to a Canadian trust and its statutes ensure that the culturally and historically significant family legacy will be kept together in their entirety and remain in Canada for the long term.
Legal owner of the items is a Canadian trust. What makes today's descendants the rightful beneficiaries of this trust?
The direct descendants of Emperor Karl I and Empress Zita are beneficiaries of this trust, the former owners of the objects. The objects have always been private property of the imperial family since they were placed in a family fund by Empress Maria Theresa in 1765 and remain so to this day. This was also the view of the then Procurator Fiscal in Austria in 1921, who declared all the objects that are now in the Canadian trust to be “separate private property” of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. This was later confirmed by the then Director of the Treasury of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna to the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) in 2001.
The objects were not and are not subject to the expropriation of the family’s assets ordered by the Habsburg Laws, as all the objects were clearly located in Switzerland at the time the Habsburg Laws came into effect. Due to the principle of territoriality, as codified in §5 of the Habsburg Laws, expropriation laws are only effective within the country’s borders and do not extend to property located outside its jurisdiction.
This was also the view of Switzerland at the time, which rejected claims made by the Austrian state to take possession of objects on Swiss territory. The corresponding report from 1921 to the Swiss Foreign Ministry can be found in the Swiss Federal Archives.
In the course of the expropriation of the family under the Habsburg Laws, the Republic of Austria had considered making a claim to the private property stored in Switzerland in the period 1920-1921. At the time, the Austrian government refrained from filing a claim because it knew it would be unsuccessful.
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