The lender maintained that it had accepted the collateral based on documents supplied by the borrowing entity and representations about the right to pledge the necklace.
Its legal team acknowledged that the ownership dispute required urgent resolution.
The piece remained in secure storage.
No sale had occurred.
And the lender agreed to a temporary restriction on further movement while the parties addressed the legal issue.
Diana nearly cried when Helena told her.
For weeks, she'd imagined the necklace being dismantled or sold to someone who didn't know its history.
Now there was evidence that the piece might still be intact.
But she didn't celebrate yet.
She knew the storage record wasn't the same as physically verifying the original.
The foundation still needed a professional inspection and formal recovery.
Until then, the necklace remained beyond its authorized control.
The disputed signature also began unraveling.
The electronic file didn't contain a valid signing record attributable to Diana.
Instead, the image of her signature appeared to have been inserted into a document prepared within a separate administrative workflow.
The reviewers identified a source document from which the signature image was likely copied.
It was a legitimate agreement Diana had signed years earlier.
The disputed authorization used a visually matching image but lacked supporting evidence that she'd approved the new transaction.
The investigators also found communications discussing the need to obtain her signature quickly.
One message referred to the foundation as "unnecessarily complicated."
Another suggested that the documentation could be completed from existing materials.
Graham's name appeared in the communications.
He denied authorizing a forgery.
His attorney argued that staff might have misunderstood instructions to prepare draft paperwork.
That explanation was examined.
But the company's records showed the completed document had been supplied to an outside lender as though it were valid.
And the lender had relied on it in evaluating the transaction.
The consequences were no longer merely internal.
A private financier had apparently been presented with false authority over an asset that did not belong to the borrower.
The matter was referred to appropriate law-enforcement authorities through counsel.
Diana didn't announce that Graham was guilty of a crime.
But she authorized full cooperation with the investigation and an independent assessment of the company's control failures.
The most painful conversation took place with Clara.
They met in Evelyn's original workshop, which Aurelle had preserved as part of its design archive.
The building had been renovated, but the old wooden bench remained.
So did the narrow drawers.
The work lamp.
And several photographs of Evelyn teaching young apprentices.
Clara stood beside the bench with tears in her eyes.