The late Prince Bernhard has been accused of secretly selling off his wife queen Juliana’s Fabergé tray.

The tray, which would be worth millions of euros today, was presented to Juliana’s mother queen Wilhelmina by the Dutch community in Saint Petersburg 1901 when she married prince Hendrik.

It was kept in the Royal archives but appeared unexpectedly in 1974 in a catalogue issued by auction house Christie’s.

Jewellery expert Erik Schoonhoven says in Royalty magazine, that his recent research shows that Bernhard sold the piece in 1963 to the London court jeweller Wartski and pocketed the money.

However, the tray belonged to Juliana because the pair were not married in community of property, Schoonhoven says.

It is the latest in a series of scandals surrounding the controversial Bernhard, who died in 2004.