PALACE BURGLARY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 September 1924, Page 8

PALACE BURGLARY.

PORTUGAL’S GREAT LOSS.

PRECIOUS RELICS STOLEN

Lisbon telegrams recently reported that the famous Royal palace at Villa Vicosa —the summer residence of the Kings of Portugal, which belongs to exKing Manoel, and where priceless art treasures belonging to the Portuguese Royal families were piled up-—has been ransacked by burglars. They took booty worth, it is estimated, £1,500,000, including a dinner service of massive silver, splendid old tapestries recalling the history of the Braganza family, ancient gold and silver vases, historical souvenirs, pictures by, old masters, etc. ' ‘ .The - palace, which is situated hear the Spanish frontier, was a favourite residence of King Carlos and Queen Amehe.

It .was m this chateau that the murdered sovereign signed the famous decree of deportation of the Portuguese ■Republican leaders.

Vhen he dropped his pen after putting his signature to the decree, King Carlos exclaimed to his Minister “I iL 1 ]Ust Sl ’s ned m J sentence of death. Two days later, in Lisbon, the King and his eldest son (Manoel’s brother) fell under the bullets of the Portuguese revolutionaries.