I agree that both brooches are of similar style, but judging from their shape and the forms of the diamond bows and swirls, they look clearly different. So I guess we can safely conclude that the brooch auctioned by Hofer Antik Schmuck is not Queen Fabiola's City of Antwerp brooch.

But I share Hans's concern about the whereabouts of Queen Fabiola's brooch. Queen Fabiola has occasionally worn it in the 1960s, but much more rarely later. And we have never seen it on Queen Mathilde or any other Belgian royal lady since Queen Fabiola's death.

As it was a wedding gift presented to Queen Fabiola by a Belgian public civic body, and thus purchased from Belgian public money, I hope that Queen Fabiola bequeathed it to Queen Mathilde or to Crown Princess Elisabeth, and not to one of her Spanish relatives.

Queen Fabiola also owned another diamond Art Déco bracelet, whose whereabouts are similarly unknown.



I wonder if the City of Antwerp's brooch (whose overall design is not very appealing, IMHO) could have been dismounted and turned into one of Queen Mathilde's modern diamond tassel earrings (see picture below). The style is very similar (a mix of round and baguette diamonds, endind in diamond tassel), but this is just a question from me, not an assertion (we should take the time to count precisely the number of round and baguette diamonds to be sure):