Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1912 — BRAGANZA DAGGER IS FOUND [ARTICLE]

BRAGANZA DAGGER IS FOUND

Portuguese Officials Recover Weapon, Missing Two Years— Sought by American. Lisbon, Portugal.—The famous dagger of the dukes of Braganza, long coveted by wealthy American collectors, has been returned to the state as mysteriously as it disappeared from the royal palace of Necessidades on the night of October 4, 1910, when King Manuel fled .from his castle to find refuge on British shores. The weapon, studded with precious stones and bearing chlselmanship attributed to Benvenuto Cellini, is estimated to be worth $50,000. Many foreigners have sought to purchase it, romantic tales associated with the blade having added a historic worth to its intrinsic value. At the time of the revolution tha Republican leaders visits! the deserted palace and took possession of all the Jewels and works of art that the royal family had left behind. The dagger and some other valuables, however, failed to find their way into the hands of the new authorities. Some timeago the government decided that all the furniture, jewels and other property, seized at the palaces, but which belonged to the fallen monarch and his mother, Queen Amelie, should be returned to thlm in London, and the old inventory books of the Braganza family are being examined to separate what belongs rightfully to the royal family from what is considered as the property of the republic. Recently the dagger was secretly placed in the letter box of the official who is conducting the inventory. There was nothing to indicate by whom it had been restored.