Clout Of Africa

THE FIRST CONTACT I had with Africa was in 1969, accompanied by Gio, my first love. We were going on a photographic safari in Kenya after a short, rather disappointing seaside stay in Malindi, a town on the coast. We had returned to the capital, Nairobi, by train, all made of mahogany and silver, still from the English colonial era.

From there, a Jeep took us, with a guide, toward the first of a long series of reserves heading north. It was all extremely natural and wild, with no air-conditioning or crowds taking photographs. It was before the days of mass tourism. We circumnavigated several notable reserves between Kenya and Tanzania, with journeys of 200 to 300 kilometers per day.

I remember very well Ngorongoro Park and its steep descent in a Jeep with the local rangers into the huge crater of a volcano that has been extinct for centuries, perhaps millions of years. The specific fauna and flora there live in autarky. It was very particular. I remember the black-maned lions. These are the only felines in Africa to have manes this color—between brown and truly black. I remember Lake Victoria, with its lodge among the elephants, and Kilimanjaro with its snow-capped peak.

Then we moved on to Tanzania, which at that time was not only a Communist but pro-Maoist state. This was a little reckless due to our ignorance of the geopolitical situation, but it allowed us to spend an unforgettable week. I recall a lodge that was an ancient Portuguese fort from the 1600s, used as a hotel on top of a hill overlooking the entire plain. I thought of the courage of the Portuguese at the time, arriving, certainly not in a Jeep, into that nothingness in the midst of all the different hostilities of the place.

I was able to completely identify with that African atmosphere several years later, thanks to that masterpiece of a film, Out of Africa—from the colors to the spaces, everything was exactly like that, plus the kindness of the population. It could have been a rich multiethnic nation, more or less like it is now, without all those deaths, if the British had also involved the country’s elite in its management, as President Mandela did years after.

I also remember that one evening, in the fort, we had dinner with two rather large German ladies who had arrived alone with their guide and car that day. We were accommodated in bungalows that were very romantic, large, and very high, but positioned outside the walls of the small fort. In bed for a while, but not being able to sleep as usual due to the disturbing noises that come with the dark, both from the savannah and from the thatched roof of the bungalows, which normally, we were told, should prevent bats, and worse, snakes.

Around 11 p.m., the two German ladies knocked on our bungalow door and, trembling, told us that the locals had accused them of being racists and Nazis, and had made rather threatening gestures as they were probably followers of the Maoist party. Not wanting to stay alone in their bungalow, they asked us if they could stay with us… I ended the night in the armchair!

We then moved on to Tanzania, a romantic but poor country not unlike Kenya, where I found and purchased some tanzanite, a new stone that resembled sapphire but was classified as semi-precious. Years later, it was launched by the American jeweler Tiffany, and even today the beautiful large stones are quite expensive for semi-precious stones, which few customers understand. And then animals, animals, animals.

Diamonds in South Africa

Diamonds were found in Africa only in 1886, 120 km from Kimberly (South Africa), although they had been present in India for more than 6,000 years. The first large diamond, mistaken for quartz, given that the African slopes are practically made up exclusively of sparkling quartz, was found accidentally in the dust on the surface by a young Boer. Then, gradually, numerous mines were developed until in 1888 the largest diamond company in the world was founded: De Beers.

It must be recalled that the Second Boer War waged by the English to conquer South Africa was also partly at the cost of diamond mines. It was my brother, Paolo, who, since 1970, had specialized in the purchase and selection of diamonds for our Maison. This was mainly in Antwerp in Belgium, before the tax-ridden cutters moved to Tel Aviv for the production of our jewels.

Knowing that, at the time, the market was monopolized by De Beers, and given that we did not have enough financial means to delve into the problem of the other diamond-bearing areas discovered little by little in Africa, I had chosen to dedicate myself to colored stones, which were completely free on the market and supported by our very expert cutter partner.

Also, because Africa has not always been a simple and safe area like the East has been, the son of our agent from Jaipur, India, came to Angola for the first time not many years ago to deal in rough diamonds, which should have been a bargain. When he arrived on site, they took him to an isolated region, with his cash, for the transaction, as is customary in the East, and there, he was robbed and kidnapped, and the family also had to pay a ransom to get him back alive. Today, he doesn’t want to hear any mention of Africa.

Mines have been found almost everywhere in the world and in Africa. De Beers had to resign itself in 2010 to abandoning its “sightholders,” closing the mega structure in London, and retreating solely to Namibia, in South Africa. Namibia, a land of large deposits that are not only terrestrial but also maritime, found in the estuaries of rivers, which naturally transported unimaginable quantities of diamonds for millions of years.

For more than sixty years, De Beers, having a monopoly on South African extractions, had established sightholders, which brought together, as in a club, trading companies and, above all, the largest cutters in the world, who paid a fixed price to receive a closed wooden box of rough diamonds, without knowing either the quantity or the quality—today could be many, next time maybe less—without ever being able to question it. But certainly, the sightholders were the only ones exclusively entitled to that manna coming from the South African mines.

It was only when they decided to leave London that De Beers, with their characteristic arrogance, informed the market that their goods were now free and anyone could obtain supplies from them at market prices in Namibia. So we, a small Maison, continued to supply ourselves from our suppliers, mainly from the cutters, who had moved from Amsterdam to Antwerp (due to tax problems) or to Tel Aviv or to New York for the large stones.

When I say only in Namibia, it is because De Beers has practically put the nation under protection, with its own army, with territories fenced and controlled by their armed forces.

Personnel control has always been a big problem for all mines, but diamond mines today are equipped with scanners that all mine employees must undergo both upon entry and exit, given that one of the most usual methods to smuggle the stones out of the mines was to ingest them or insert them anally.

Recently, I learned that the new method of trafficking rough diamonds from Namibian mines is the use of pigeons that are trained to bring the small package back to the miner’s home. This is resolved by attempting to hunt any bird that flies over the mines.

Sierra Leone

One fine day in 1985, I received a visit from one of our clients, a very nice Neapolitan lawyer, who at first, I didn’t take very seriously. Then, introducing himself as the owner of a 50-meter boat moored in the port of Monaco, he definitely attracted my attention. This lawyer told me that he had finally found a place where he could acquire diamonds and gold at a minimum of 30% less than the cost of fixing on the international market.

Let me start by saying that I immediately told him that in our profession these products were said to have come “from the moon”—that is, stolen goods, which are dangerous due to a careless purchase or fakes. This person begged me to take him seriously as he had already made several trips to Africa, more precisely to Sierra Leone, where he had created a company with the former minister of finance, and we would go on his personal plane to meet the president.

It must be said that this country, in the diamond and jewelry sector, is a mythical place where, geologically, it is by chance the only place in all of Africa where, in addition to South Africa, Kimberlite was discovered, which is the matrix used to find some big diamonds. It had been several years since I had felt the call of adventure to search for stones that I had when I was very young, so I decided to accept.

And this trip immediately proved to be particular because, in addition to the somewhat heteroclite components: a games director of the American Casino in Monaco, a marketing director of a large tourist travel company, a financier—in short, my client was trying to organize a rebirth of the country.

The story goes that the very poor country had been in the hands of a group of Lebanese Shiite Muslims who managed it as a personal asset, until they begged Saudi Arabia, on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood and the government, to make a gift of a certain quantity of oil. But this poor country did not even see a shadow of this oil that was sold directly by the Lebanese on the international market.

The president of the time managed to obtain proof of the fraud and with great courage expelled the entire Lebanese community from Sierra Leone. The only problem was that since everything was managed financially by the Lebanese, the country found itself in a very serious situation to the point of no

 longer even having physical paper money to change one hundred dollars at the official exchange rate.

So the president contacted anyone who would want to invest in the country and that’s where my Neapolitan lawyer client comes into play.

We left from Nice but had to stop over one night on the Cape Verde Islands so as not to arrive at night in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, as the airport was closed at night (also due to lack of electricity). If a small plane had arrived, they surely would have mistaken it for Lebanese mercenaries or enemies.

The following morning, we arrived at the airport, which had only one arrival almost every day from Caledonian Airways, which connected South Africa to London, and vice versa, so the tarmac was deserted but we were welcomed almost with a symbolic red carpet.

In this deserted place, we made use of a helicopter service from the airport to the capital, which, flying over the bay that divided them, cut at least two hours off a journey that was not far but difficult to travel on the local roads, as we found out later. The heli-transport was carried out by Russian crews, and with rather obsolete Russian helicopters, but who knows what else they did in terms of traffic or service since there were no tourists or even passengers...

Once in the city, we were welcomed by the former minister of finance of Sierra Leone, Mr. Sumatck Sheka Kanu, known as Mr. Samu, who I later discovered had a rare, highly developed intelligence and, above all, he already had a local “reseau” in hand, which ranged from tourism to real estate—whatever real estate meant in Sierra Leone in those days!

We had no time to unpack before we were immediately transferred to the Presidential Palace for formal introductions to the president, who warmly welcomed us.

Focusing only on my experience, I was introduced as one of the most important jewelers in the world (sic) from Monaco, et cetera. At which the beaming president told me that I had to immediately meet the minister of mining, who was called on the phone. I was straightaway escorted in a military Jeep to the ministry! It was like a dream—I was entering, welcomed by the minister who rejoiced at my arrival, and without hesitation, pointed me to the large geological map of the country hanging on the wall, where I could obtain concessions for the extraction of diamonds and/or gold.

He sadly explained to me that many concessions had already been taken by the multinational De Beers, which certainly paid the rental fees for the concessions, but it had been years since they had carried out any research. It was typical of that famous multinational, which, with its monopoly, avoided extractions that would automatically increase the supply of diamonds on the market. They had an easy game. Who knows what agreements they had made with the Lebanese before their expulsion? They also tried to stop the small mining development of the internal population in the free areas of the country, but which they could not control.

The minister told me they wanted work and partnerships to develop diamond production that would bring much greater benefits than simple leases. We agreed that in the following days, we would visit the different sites via helicopter—both those under work by the government but which needed strengthening because they were almost at a standstill due to lack of funds, and those where the first soil explorations had already been carried out and whose yields were promising.

We were each accommodated in a beautiful villa on a famous and enchanting long white beach, where our Mr. Suma had already tried to start a tourist development in front of the Atlantic Ocean.

Several diamond and gold meetings followed. It was explained to me that in addition to the work of the mines, which had to be in partnership with the government, the important thing was to organize an office-atelier that could receive people in the center of the city: the population who came from the center of the country (the “brousse”) to trade or barter what they collected in gold and diamonds. This is where my client’s promise of -30% came from—a “bart” (exchange) for which the population did not even want to be paid but preferred to have bags of cement or rice in exchange: a true Wild West!

If gold was difficult to evaluate even approximately, for rough diamonds it was a case for professionals. The problem was, who, as a professional, wanted to live in a country like that? I don’t deny that if I had still been eighteen years old, in those conditions with those prerogatives of partnerships, perhaps I would have chosen to become an African adventurer.

We even began to talk about rice and cement ships to implement a high-level bart and about signing extraction agreements with the government—all of this in a context of great euphoria but without the slightest idea of the necessary investment, nor the impossibility of being financed.

I quickly understood that my Neapolitan client had spent a lot of his assets to start all the research and promote the country, and would not have, like me, sufficient capital to create something important in the diamond field, although he tried to convince and dazzle Mr. Suma.

It was desolate, but it was the mantra of Africa that repeated itself: having everything but not being able to develop anything unless, like the Boers, an entire population moved and founded a country free from European colonialists (at least for a while).

Then I remembered an important client of mine who had also become a friend over time: Gernot Swarovski of the dynasty that had moved from Bohemia to Austria in the 19th century and had founded a crystal industry and various other industrial diversifications on one site, Wattens, not far from Innsbruck.

Over time, since our first meeting in Monte Carlo during a Formula 1 Grand Prix with his charming wife Maja, Gernot had been an important client, and we were on excellent terms—perhaps also because he appreciated me very much as a creator. He asked me one day if I wanted to design and produce “real” jewels for Swarovski, even opening a specialized atelier near ours in Valenza, Italy, which he had visited, launching an important collection of jewels that I would then have managed myself.

I was very flattered by this offer and thanked him heartily, but, perhaps too honestly, I told him that today a Swarovski object is known worldwide for its synthetic crystals, and it would undermine all efforts for development and success in the world of jewelry. Although, to my detriment, given the important investment required, I soon changed my mind.

During one of my regular Christmas visits to his Austrian chalet every December 24th eve, and acting as Santa Claus who brought gifts for the whole family every year, Gernot told me that shortly before, he had made an acquisition on the American stock exchange of the Zales jewelry chain (three thousand shops predominantly in department stores) and that we were now, laughingly, competitors.

He also explained to me that the biggest problem of this chain was being able to find and purchase a mass of medium-small diamonds, always all the same in weight and quality and all at the same price for their engagement rings—an industrial factor that I promised him to take an interest in at the large cutting shops, especially the Indian ones that I knew.

Here, the mines of Sierra Leone could correspond to his needs.

So when I returned from my first African trip, I immediately visited the Swarovski financial company based in Zurich, explaining to Gernot that there could be a very important project in Africa, but that to safeguard our friendship and my professionalism, I couldn’t mention anything. If, however, they could give me one of their trusted men from Maison Swarovski, then I could accompany him on a trip to Sierra Leone. If I had even just mentioned what I had seen and what could be done, I would undoubtedly have lost his esteem or friendship, with him taking me for a braggart.

And so it was, leaving again from Nice with the small plane, we stopped in Cape Verde, Free Town airport, helicopter service, Mr. Suma, President, minister of mining, etc., etc., etc.…

The Swarovski Group decided to invest in Sierra Leone in diamond mining with the local government by signing official agreements, and I organized a group of gold and diamond appraisers from London to carry out the local business of “bart” in the Free Town office.

Not six months had passed before the multinational De Beers moved, certainly not in an official manner, but the minister of mining disappeared, and the “parliament” was made to vote on a law that bartering between private individuals was no longer allowed, but had to pass through government institutions.

But this was nothing compared to what the civil war did to the Swarovski project (where I had only 5%)—everything disappeared, and one of the most terrible situations for the population began, which later became notorious.

I personally experienced an application of the “colonial method” of defending particular interests at any cost and without scruples, which reminded me very much of the methods of the famous English East India Company of undisputed pirate fame!

The five years of ferocious civil war brought everything back to how it should be according to the capitalist concept: to prevent you from doing anything or changing the status quo—you, who are not part of the establishment and are not even freemasons but simple entrepreneurs—the old laws rule here!

The consequences were not only disastrous for the population of Sierra Leone, but the farce was that De Beers took action against this war (certainly created and financed by them) by obliging, from then on, that producers (mining companies) and traders have a certificate called the “Kimberley Process,” which proves the origin of the diamonds to prevent them from becoming a product that could finance future wars. They also invented the concept and a truculent name, complete with the support of the Hollywood film: Blood Diamonds. 

The result was that from the moment they decreed the end of the “small free miners” who were so disturbed as they were unable to sell their products on the free market, they handed them over to the mafias that control the purchase of small diamonds and the market even more. Given that, who do you want to be the one who delivers a certificate? A fantastic operation of capitalist monopoly in favor of only large producers with very profound ethical aspects, as usual!

Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Today, the country which is called a “democratic” Republic, was for thirty years a state governed by President Mobutu Sese Seko, whose personal French architect, Olivier Cacoub, not only built him palaces and villas in Africa, but as a wise man advised him on many other things, especially in Europe.

His two wives became our clients. They were twins who frequently came to the Côte d’Azur where they later acquired a beautiful villa on Cap Martin, and made frequent visits to my wife Gio in our boutique in Monaco.

The relationship was very simple. When Madame la President (and/or her sister) came to our boutiques in Monaco and Paris, they were closed and made private to better accommodate them.

They were very friendly visits in a festive environment that lasted for several hours, as in the more classic visits of important people who wanted special objects.

A few times there were visits to the private residence on Cap Martin where my wife and I met the president.

The president had a very particular concept of jewelers. He said that we were all bandits, because a few years earlier he had been convinced by the famous Chaumet brothers of Place Vendôme to leave a certain quantity (it was never clear) of rough diamonds that had come out of the mines of Zaire to be cut and mounted. The only problem was that these diamonds disappeared in the great failure of those two very reputed old Parisian gentlemen in the 90s, discrediting the whole profession and especially the jewelers of the Place Vendôme for several years.

Every time President Mobutu, when he was present, reminded us of this, but fortunately his wives and daughters supported us, telling us not to worry.

While not betraying our obligation of professional secrecy, I can only tell you about a time when we were paid by the ladies, in Paris, with a large black plastic bag containing a mixture of at least 20 different types of foreign currencies for a corresponding sum that we deposited in the bank.

We expected pandemonium and a tax audit and we were ready with all the necessary justifications, but no one asked us anything…the power of cash!

Another time a curious thing happened because we had our villa in Turin on the hill, and I don’t know why, but the Mobutu family knew about it, so we were contacted by the president’s secretary regarding a neighbor of ours.

It must be remembered that in that period there was a Belgian company, “Générale de Belgique,” that was in partnership with Mobutu for many years, mastering almost the entire country, undoubtedly inherited from King Leopold of Belgium. This wealthy company had been idle for several years on the Belgian stock exchange and its price was undoubtedly greatly undervalued.

At a certain point, there was a famous Italian raider, Mr. Carlo De Benedetti, whose father was our neighbor on Turin hill, who noticed this and tried to make a coup, contacting President Mobutu to have the approval of the operation.

Mobutu arrived in Turin on a private Boeing to meet him, by appointment, but when he was in front of our neighbor, at the house of the father of this famous Turin financier, chosen for privacy, with all his escorts, he was doubtful that someone who boasted of being able to invest billions of dollars could live in this modest mansion.

So, urgently, through Mr. Cacoub’s secretary, they called me and asked me for information on the investor: I could only give confirmation of the financial power of the De Benedetti family. I remember, as an example, that before I even moved to Monaco, one day I was in the garden of our villa in Turin and I heard our old local farmer coming from the street near our park swearing quite loudly.

I asked him what the problem was and he told me, interspersing several swear words, that our neighbor, the future raider’s father, had wanted 2,000 lire (about 3 US dollars at the time) in payment for the hay he obtained for his cows when he came to cut the grass in Mr. De Benedetti’s garden.

I told the farmer that I must be naïve to pay him extra when he cut our grass! From that day I understood how capitalists behave to maintain their fortunes. Perhaps it is because I never had enough that I wasn’t able to behave accordingly!

For information, the raider succeeded in his goal and truly made a masterful financial coup on the company Generali de Belgique!

He was so excited by the success of his operation that, even though it was late, I think around 11 p.m., he went to the president of the Belgian company to announce his coup in person and to tell the president that, from the following day, he would have to give and take orders from him.

The president of the company, who was from a large Belgian noble family, and who was part of the establishment of the largest local capitalists, let the raider leave and in the hour he had left of that day, succeeded before midnight to get a series of friendly capitalists to agree to get the assembly to vote and take the situation back into control.

The hunter hunted.

For many years, we had the honor of following the president’s family, and it was also proposed to me by the president’s entourage to open a local office in Zaire for diamond trading, which, with the support of the presidential family, could have been of considerable importance.

Fortunately, my plans at the time were already aimed at many other countries, and Zaire was certainly not the easiest or most organized, and I rejected the proposal.

The country received American support, protection, and influence, but then from the end of the Cold War in 1990, it was no longer interested in the American “Great Game” against Russian imperialism in Africa, and Mobutu was abandoned to speculators of multinationals (Belgian and French) who, after an international denigratory campaign, which I knew firsthand to be false, were induced solely to be able to grab the mineral potential and riches of Zaire with impunity.

Here too, a guerrilla war arose, financed not only by these multinationals but also by nearby predatory countries, and using an old Marxist rebel as a “liberator,” they caused a civil war to break out.

The End of Zaire

But the most painful part was the aftermath of the attack on President Mobutu, who was spared nothing in order to be dethroned from his role and to take possession of the country’s riches.

They went so far as to say that in addition to being a ferocious and corrupt dictator, he was known as an anthropophagous and children were his favorite dish.

Indeed, he was a dictator who, however, had reigned over the great country for more than 25 years, creating consensus with the sharing of benefits and powers, certainly not a very democratic but typically tribal concept that gave stability to the country and kept it at peace so the people could survive.

I personally saw these meetings in his villa on Cap Martin where various tribal leaders who were guests each received gifts and told me what their state functions were, and the maintenance of the army for the management of the country against the different African neighbors who had been trying to destabilize the various mining areas for years.

But the “democratic forces” like France, now free from the American constraint, went so far as to finance a real bandit disguised as a Maoist communist—Mr. Joseph Kabila in a neighboring country—and to create a civil war lasting several years, in order to be able to take possession in exchange for aid, provided by Zaire’s raw materials. A serious illness weakened President Mobutu, who had become an anti-democratic pariah, and he died in exile.

But, as always, these civil wars got out of hand for the financiers, and so only chaos and death were created for 15 years and those who paid the heavy price in the end were the people of Zaire. Even today the country is a non-state, invaded by gangs and neighboring nations, the production of raw materials no longer exists, and a semblance of a state was in the hands of the son of Mr. Kabila, who has died in the meantime, who certainly did not bring democracy, nor, as a good revolutionary, the distribution of the country’s assets.

A painful ending was also the disappearance of President Mobutu’s personal assets, many registered to “friends,” who all disappeared.

A daughter of the late President, some of whose jewels I helped to sell to survive, told me personally: “Mr. Repossi, no one has come or helps anymore. The family, everything, has disappeared like the friends of the time and our father in the last few years. His times in exile, he no longer remembered anything.”

But as always, this type of war is not simple in a country almost as large as Europe. The war escaped from all control and turned out to be terrible for the civilian populations and for the destruction of the country which has not yet stabilized to date.

Nefarious colonial influence, which, from the time of the King of Belgium, made the country a private property, meant its suffering never stopped in a hundred years.

Ivory Coast

Following the specialization we had acquired with the work carried out in Sierra Leone, we were looking for countries, especially African ones, where we could set up offices for gold trading.

One of these was the Ivory Coast

, where we kept an office open for almost a year thanks to a French partner and manager, and his wife, who lived in the capital.

These two people were extremely honest and it was a shame to have to stop the office because of illegal trade promoted by the Lebanese who paid more for the expensive metal than the fixing price because it was then used for one-way export.

Since it was not possible to hold capital abroad, the export invoicing of the metal was simply made to disappear with a tip to the customs so that the capital could remain abroad.

We certainly couldn’t compete with those who paid 20% more than the market fixing just to have raw materials to export and we had to abandon it.

But in adversity we were very lucky because shortly afterward a civil war broke out between the north and the south.

I’m not very interested in local geopolitical factors, but an important French client of mine who had been based in the Ivory Coast for many years now explained to me that this war was simply caused to explode because the President of the time who was under the protection of France (including the armed forces present on-site) wanted to re-discuss the country’s oil prices with the French state company that monopolized the country by imposing very low prices.

Since no increase was accepted, the president made a new contract with American oil companies.

And for this reason, a political opponent of the president found himself financed and armed and began a guerrilla war from the north with large migration and significant losses of civilians.

There was a “pacifying intervention” by France, which intervened and stopped the rebels in half the country, dividing it, and in the end, the President lost the elections and was arrested.

But the whole country collapsed and the richest, most serious, and organized country in all of Africa did not recover again for many years, the Westerners fled. Even now the country is in a situation of complete dislocation. Perhaps they want the Chinese to revive it.

It was one of the last examples of nefarious colonial influence which, for the profit of an oil company and national or personal interests, had condemned a country to disaster, then that country which claims to be the cradle of world democracy and civil rights (just think what they say about Italy, on the topic of migrants) today dares to give moral lessons.

Gabon

I have never been to Gabon, but through one of our exclusive agents, we were “present” for many years and I followed the internal events of this country.

President Omar Bongo, whom I never had the pleasure and honor of meeting, became an important client of ours and, with his entire family, often frequented Place Vendôme.

We had exhibitions every year in Brazzaville, the capital, for the various holidays. The president had always been truly generous and went as far as ordering special Repossi watches for gifts with his image silk-screened at six o’clock. The president’s entire entourage competed to wear them as a demonstration of the president’s closeness and benevolence.

We had already taken these microphotographs for other important people, which were then normally positioned at the VI o’clock of the dial; certainly of a “relative” taste but we could not refuse the president!

Here too, upon the death of President Bongo in 2009, the country dislocated and although he was succeeded by a son, he didn’t possess that ancient serenity and stability that Mr. Bongo gave to the country for a long time.

The lesson I learned from attending to these different presidents, who ultimately had absolute power but their self-interested magnanimity was used to be able to “reign,” was that they shared, not only with their political adversaries but also with all the different tribes and some strata of the population, the profit that came from national goods, something that the colonialists never did.

Furthermore, the French socialist rulers, who passed a law on mal perçu assets (after their centuries of theft) have now attacked and seized the cars and houses in Paris of the president’s son... but they, the colonialists, who were later democratically involved with the system with a quasi-ministry called francafrique, had stripped this country for decades, but this no longer counts...it’s the past. Now there are the complaints. Green finance!

The notion of mal perçu assets only seems to apply to others, starting from Africa to Indochina and arriving at Napoleon Bonaparte who filled the Louvre with all the goods he stole.

By Alberto Repossi

Senior Editor

Jewelry has been a Repossi family legacy since 1920, beginning with Alberto Repossi's grandfather's first High Jewelry factory in northern Italy. In 1978, Alberto and his wife, Gio' Giove Repossi, opened their first store in Monaco, followed by another in Paris in 1986. By 1994, Repossi became the "Official Supplier of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco." Their creations have adorned royalty and celebrities, including Princess Diana's engagement ring in 1997 and Princess Charlene of Monaco's engagement ring.