The fact that Queen Elizabeth stole the golden piano from Saddam Hussein's palace
Queen of Britain and behind her a golden piano. Archives
Tens of thousands of posts were collected by a group of photos of Queen Elizabeth showing behind a huge golden piano with the claim that it was stolen from one of the palaces of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the invasion of Iraq.
But this claim is wrong and has swept social media sites after it first appeared on a satirical site. As for the piano, it has been owned by the British Crown since 1856.
The publication includes a group of photos, one of which shows Queen Elizabeth II giving a speech, with a huge golden piano behind it. A second picture shows the golden piano.
The third picture is a tweet by the Scottish journalist Jackie Bird, in which she says that the piano was stolen from Saddam Hussein's palace.
The leaflet was attached to the comment: "The distinguished Queen of Great Britain gave her annual speech yesterday. Behind her appears in the photo the golden piano that was stolen from the palace of the late President Saddam Hussein."
Many publications in different languages (French, English and Turkish) relied on this particular tweet to promote this allegation that described the Queen of Britain as a thief.
As for the Arabic language, the post began to circulate in December 2018, and from this Facebook page alone, it generated more than 20 thousand posts.
However, the golden piano is not stolen from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and has been in the possession of the British Royal Crown for more than 150 years.
In addition, the allegation was based on a rumor spread by a satirical website using a fake tweet by the Scottish journalist.
This news is false and completely untrue .. There is no existence of any piano stolen from the palaces of President Saddam Hussein ..! # Raghad Saddam Hussein # Saddam_Hussain pic.twitter.com/mk2hcxa4BC
- Raghad Saddam Hussein (@RghadSaddam) January 3, 2019Piano story
This piano has been owned by the British royal family since the mid-nineteenth century.
According to the Royal Collection website that manages the art collection owned by the royal family, Queen Victoria, who ruled the United Kingdom between 1819 and 1901, bought this piano on April 30, 1856.
This piano was designed by French manufacturer S&P Erard to decorate the Buckingham Palace rooms where the royal family welcomes their guests.
As for the image of the Queen with the golden piano behind her, used out of context, she was captured in the "White Drawing" room while broadcasting her 2018 Christmas wishes on TV.
The presence of this piano at the time during the Queen's speech in which she addressed "generosity and sacrifice" sparked criticism in the British media and social media.
Satirical news official denial
As for the tweet, which constituted fertile ground for the spread of this claim, it was not posted on the official account of the journalist Jackie Bird, but rather on a satirical account bearing her name modified with the addition of the letter H.
The account explicitly indicates that it is sarcastic, which is shown by this screen capture.
:
- # Saddam,
- # Saddam_Hussain,
- #Iraq,
- #Britain,
- # Queen_Britain,
- #Gold piano