Empress Zita brought stone to Canada as Nazis took over Europe in 1940s and it remained in bank vault ever since
At the height of the Battle of Britain, when the UK government needed a secret location to store 186,332 gold bars, it turned to Canada.
Shipped across the Atlantic and stored beneath a hastily constructed vault in Montreal, Operation Fish became known both for the vast amounts of gold involved – and the immense secrecy that followed.
The lesson: Canada and its banks can keep secrets.
So it should perhaps have come as little surprise that a famed diamond, once feared lost to history, has surfaced after sitting inside a Canadian bank vault for decades.
