Richard Wallace

‘The ancient jewels of the crown are heirloomes and shall descend to the next successor and are not devisable by testament.’ – Sir Edward CokeGeneva, April 1987. The staid Swiss town is awash with limousines, journalists and minor European aristocracy. All the best hotels and restaurants are bursting at the seams. Caviar, truffles and foie gras are in short supply, while champagne is flooding the market at ridiculously high prices.They are all focused on one place: Sotheby’s auction house, which is preparing to host the ‘auction of the century’ – that of the late Duchess of Windsor’s jewellery collection.But where did this treasure trove come from? And was it ever really the Duchess’ at all?Questions have circulated around the collection’s murky provenance since the moment Wallis Simpson stepped onto the scene; now The King’s Loot looks to find the answers. Drawing on eyewitness interviews, contemporary accounts and previously unpublished sources, Richard Wallace – who was there at that notorious Swiss auction – delves into the mystery surrounding this hoard.

A few days after Paris was liberated from the Nazis in August 1944, the most notorious fashion couturiere in the world collapsed on a hotel bed in Switzerland after escaping the French capitol and certain death. How did an exhausted Coco Chanel get there and who helped her evade warring Allied and German troops?For 80 years, this incredible feat of courage, luck, and ingenuity in the midst of immense danger has been deliberately shrouded in disinformation and secrecy by family, friends, wary governments, risk-averse business partners, and fellow collaborators. But now, with the aid of new information contained in previously unreleased private French Résistance papers and a new assessment of discredited evidence from organised crime figures, what really happened to Coco Chanel during that fascinating and scandalous period of her life between 1944 and 1954 can finally be revealed.