Steve Parsons – WPA Pool/Getty King Felipe, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Letizia
King Felipe VI of Spain is opening up about his personal fortune.
The monarch, 54, revealed Monday that he has individual wealth of $2.8 million, made up of $2.4 million held in securities and bank savings, plus a further $325,000 tied up in art, antiques, and jewellery.
The surprise financial disclosure was made hours before the Spanish government revealed a new law ordering the royal house to publish quarterly financial statements, which also applies to senior civil servants serving the royal family.
It has largely been introduced in response to the multiple financial scandals surrounding the royal family — most notably Felipe’s father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, 84, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates since August 2020 following multiple allegations of tax fraud and money laundering.
The Spanish royal family
“Today, more than ever, citizens rightly demand that moral and ethical principles inspire — and exemplary preside over — our lives public,” Felipe said in a release posted on the royal family’s website alongside the financial details, which the King is said to have volunteered to make public.
“The King, as the head of the State, has to be not only a reference but also a servant of that fair and legitimate demand of all citizens,” Felipe added.
The new financial rules bring the Spanish royal house into line with other European royal houses such as Britain and Belgium, whose finances are closely scrutinized.
Felipe’s personal fortune is just a fraction of Queen Elizabeth’s, however, which is estimated at around $461 million by the most recent edition of the Sunday Times Rich List.
Steve Parsons – WPA Pool/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth
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This includes an annual “sovereign grant” from the U.K. government of $104 million to help pay for such things as overseas travel during royal tours and repairs to residences such as Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
The Queen, 96, also owns Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle and receives 15% of the profits from the Crown Estate property portfolio, which holds estimated assets of $17.8 billion, including large areas of central London and a million acres of rural land in the U.K., according to the Sunday Times.
While the exact worth of the Queen’s art and jewelry is unknown, the value of the items held in the Royal Collection – which cares for the Crown Jewels and around 7,000 paintings, 500,000 prints and thousands of photographs, ceramics, sculptures, and manuscripts – is estimated to be worth around $15 billion, reports The Guardian, with a unique collection of 600 Leonardo da Vinci drawings valued at $4 billion alone.
Even the comparatively humble royal stamp collection (or Royal Philatelic Collection) has grown to be worth an estimated $126 million since it was established in 1864.