A mysterious necklace loaded with diamonds with possible links to a scandal that contributed to the downfall of Marie Antoinette, sold for $4.8 million at an auction in Geneva on Wednesday.
The 18th-century jewel containing approximately 300 carats of diamonds was estimated at $1.8 million to $2.8 million at Sotheby’s Royal and Noble Jewels sale.
But after vigorous bidding, the hammer price settled at 3.55 million Swiss francs ($4 million), and Sotheby’s announced the final price after taxes and commissions at 4.26 million francs ($4 million). .81 million dollars).
The unidentified buyer, who made his offer by telephone, was “ecstatic”, Andres White Correal, president of Sotheby’s jewelry department, told AFP.
“She was ready to fight and she did,” he said, adding that it had been “an electric evening.”
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“There’s obviously a niche in the market for historic jewelry with fabulous provenance… People don’t just buy the item, but they buy the whole story attached to it,” he said.
Some of the diamonds in the piece are believed to come from the jewel at the center of the “diamond necklace affair” — a scandal in the 1780s that further tarnished the reputation of France’s last queen. Marie Antoinetteand strengthened support for the coming French Revolution.
The auction house said the necklace, made up of three rows of diamonds finished with a diamond tassel at each end, had emerged “miraculously intact” from a private Asian collection to make its first public appearance in 50 years.
“This spectacular antique gem is an incredible survivor of history,” he said in a statement before the sale.
Calling the massive Georgian-era piece “rare and very important,” Sotheby’s said it was likely created in the decade before the French Revolution.
“The jewel passed from family to family. We can start at the beginning of the 20th century, when it was in the collection of the Marquess of Anglesey,” White Correal said.
Members of this aristocratic family are believed to have worn the necklace twice in public: once at the coronation of King George VI in 1937 and once at the coronation of his daughter Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
“A spectacular piece of history”
Beyond that, little is known about the necklace, including who designed it and for whom it was commissioned, although the auction house believes that such an impressive antique piece of jewelry could not have been created than for a royal family.
Sotheby’s said it was likely that some of the diamonds featured in the piece came from the famous necklace from the scandal that engulfed Marie Antoinette.
This scandal involved a troubled noblewoman named Jeanne de la Motte who claimed to be a confidante of the queen and managed to acquire a lavish diamond-studded necklace in her name, against the promise of later payment.
On October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette was guillotined — but it turned out she was actually innocent of the necklace fraud she was accused of.
Although the queen was later found innocent in the affair, the scandal further deepened the perception of her carefree extravagance, adding to the anger that would spark the revolution.
Sotheby’s said the diamonds in the necklace sold Wednesday likely came from “India’s legendary Golconda mines,” considered to produce the purest and most dazzling diamonds.
“The lucky buyer walked away with a spectacular piece of history,” Tobias Kormind, director of Europe’s largest online diamond jeweler 77 Diamonds, said in a statement.
“With diamonds of exceptional quality from India’s legendary, now extinct Golconda mines, the story of a possible connection to Marie Antoinette as well as the fact that it was worn at two coronations, everything This makes this 18th century necklace truly special.”
In 2018, a large drop-shaped natural pearl pendant sold for more than 36 million dollars during a rare auction of jewelry that belonged to Marie-Antoinette. THE “Pearl of Queen Marie-Antoinette“, a diamond and pearl pendant, was among the star offerings at Sotheby’s sale of jewelry from the Bourbon-Parma dynasty in Geneva.