Princess spots her engagement ring in auction catalogue; court case follows

An engagement ring made specially for a Jordanian princess became the starting point of a criminal investigation after it appeared in a British auction catalogue in 2020. Princess Firyal Irshaid, now 81, told a London court that she had not authorised the sale of the ring or other pieces from her jewellery collection, which had remained at her Belgravia home while she was abroad during the Covid-19 pandemic. What began with a telephone call from a friend in the jewellery trade led her to examine catalogues from several earlier auctions and gather records to establish ownership. Her former housekeeper, Maria Virgelina Taborda Henao, denies stealing jewellery from the property.Princess Firyal found her missing engagement ring on a UK auction catalogueThe discovery came in November 2020, when Pierre Jeannet, a friend of the princess and a partner at the high-end jewellery house JAR, contacted her about a piece he recognised.