French queen’s stolen heart of gold is found

POLICE have recovered a stolen 16th century gold case containing the heart of the only woman to have twice been crowned queen of France.

Thieves broke in to the Thomas-dobrée Museum in Nantes earlier this month, making off with the 6in oval case containing the heart of Anne of Brittany, despite setting off an alarm.

Local reports said that police had now found the reliquary, which was crafted in 1514, along with a statuette and gold coins at an unspecified location not far from nearby Saint-nazaire.

Two men in their early twenties have been arrested and charged with “association with criminals” and “theft of cultural assets”. Two other suspects are at large.

The reliquary, topped by a gold crown with nine fleurs-de-lis, the French royal motif, is considered a masterpiece. It has been displayed at the museum for more than 130 years.

The relic has huge symbolic value in the region as Queen Anne defended the autonomy of Brittany, then a duchy linked by treaty to France and often referred to as “Little Britain”.

Anne married Charles VIII of France in 1491, ascending the throne as queen consort at the age of 12. After he died without an heir in 1498, she married Louis XII a year later.