What is everyone talking about this week: The great generational wealth transfer foretold by the financial press has already begun in the form of given heirlooms

In the pantheon of stories offering respite from our dark times, the jewellery heist at the Musée du Louvre has to be number one. October’s Napoleonic loot, worth more than €88 million (about £77 million), would have been an outrage were it not for the sheer absurdity of its acquisition: a daylight robbery on a Sunday morning using a German furniture elevator that ushered the criminals to safety faster than the guards could scream sacré bleu.

Museums worldwide are on high alert as auctioneers capitalise on a new-found love of 19th-century regalia. At London’s Prince Charles Cinema, the programme has been peppered with old heist films such as 1995’s Heat. A handful of observers have thought it necessary to discuss the incident in retributory terms: the thieves stole only what had already been stolen, claims went, evincing a popular yet misguided belief that all artefacts in European museums have previously been plundered.

Narrow as this outlook may be, it has opened my eyes to a different kind of appropriation currently occurring in the world of rings. No fewer than 10 friends have become engaged to one another in the past six months; of the five rings used in their proposals, three feature an oval sapphire encased in a diamond halo. All once belonged to their grandmothers, suggesting that the great generational wealth transfer foretold by the financial press has already begun in the form of given heirlooms.

‘The halo-enshrined sapphire has its roots in the Art Deco movement,’ explains jeweller Guillaume Stapylton-Smith, at a time when ringmakers began using platinum to frame a hoop’s principle stone. The style was especially sought after in the 1950s, when people whose grandchildren are now becoming affianced would likely have written vows of their own. As such, it would have been considered a traditional choice by 1981, when Lady Diana Spencer chose one just like it for her engagement to then Prince Charles. The ring is now worn by The Princess of Wales.

According to Forbes, the average salary for Britons aged 30 to 39 stands at £39,988. A natural, one-carat diamond can easily top £10,000. For those looking to take the next step, grandma’s ring offers precious security, just as it ensures continuity with the past. Yet it is also a sign of changing cultural mores. If millennial brides tend to favour more esoteric styles, such as the toi et moi — a ring that pairs two small, differently shaped stones together on one hoop — Gen Z tastes are more obviously classic, redolent of their penchant for younger and more traditional engagements. Forget Graff or Cartier: it’s time for tea with Granny.