It’s a glowing piece of scandal.
A 300-carat 18th century necklace, whose diamonds might have helped gasoline the overthrow of the French monarchy, offered Wednesday for practically $5 million at an public sale in Geneva.
The necklace has been worn at two British coronations and should include diamonds from the notorious necklace on the coronary heart of a scandal that tainted the repute of Marie Antoinette, the final queen of France.
It offered for greater than twice its estimate, at $4.81 million.
Experts consider that a number of the diamonds could also be linked to the notorious “Affair of the Diamond Necklace.” That principle is supported by the type of the necklace in addition to the standard and age of the stones, the public sale home Sotheby’s stated in a press launch.
The actual origins of the necklace haven’t been recorded, with Sotheby’s stressing it doesn’t know for sure.
Despite this, it stated it believed that the necklace “may solely have been created for royalty or a high-ranking aristocrat.” It pointed to its practically 500 diamonds organized in three rows that path on both facet right into a tassel.
“It stands head and shoulders above all different documented Royal and Imperial jewels of the interval,” Andres White Correal, head of royal and noble jewels at Sotheby’s stated in a press release earlier than the public sale.
“This uncommon and necessary diamond jewel is a chic survivor from the opulent courtroom lifetime of the Georgian period, outlined by its unrivalled pomp and splendor; it’s arguably one of the vital magnificent and intact Georgian jewels in personal fingers,” he added.
“It was an electrical evening,” White Correal informed the Reuters information company after the sale.
“There is clearly a distinct segment out there for historic jewels with fabulous provenances. People will not be solely shopping for the article, they’re shopping for all of the historical past that’s hooked up to it,” he stated.
That historical past facilities on Louis XV, the king of France, who commissioned a lavish diamond necklace for his mistress, Madam Du Barry, in 1722 — two years earlier than he died of smallpox.
That meant he couldn’t pay for and obtain the necklace, leaving the jewelers out of pocket.
Marie Antoinette, the nation’s new queen consort, declined to purchase the necklace regardless of her repute for extravagance. Noblewoman Jeanne de La Motte then, so the story goes, posed because the queen and satisfied an out-of-favor cardinal to provide her the lavish necklace as a present earlier than absconding with the profitable diamonds.
A subsequent trial discovered the queen harmless, however the identical couldn’t be stated of the courtroom of public opinion. The French Revolution adopted years later.
It is unclear precisely how the necklace ended up within the fingers of a British aristocratic household, the Pagets.
The Marchioness of Anglesey, a member of the Paget household, wore the necklace on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953.
According to Sotheby’s, the household parted with the piece after it was acquired by an “necessary Asian personal assortment within the Nineteen Seventies.”
The necklace has been in personal fingers ever since.
In 2022, bracelets that after belonged to Marie Antoinette offered for greater than $8 million at public sale, additionally in Geneva.