Mysterious diamond-laden necklace sells for $4.8 million at Geneva auction

A mysterious necklace loaded with some 500 diamonds and 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 around 300 carats of diamonds was estimated to be auctioned at Sotheby's Royal and Noble Jewels auction for between $1.8 million and $2.8 million.

But after vigorous bidding, the hammer price reached 3.55 million Swiss francs ($4 million), and Sotheby's quoted the final price after taxes and commissions at 4.26 million Swiss francs ($4.81 million). of dollars).

Some of the diamonds are believed to have come from a centerpiece of the “Diamond Necklace Affair,” a scandal in the 1780s that further tarnished the reputation of France's last queen, Marie Antoinette, and galvanized support for the next French Revolution.

The auction house praised that the necklace, made up of three rows of diamonds topped 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.

Describing the huge Georgian period piece as “rare and very important”, Sotheby's said it had probably been created in the decade before the French Revolution.

“The jewel has passed from family to family. We can start at the beginning of the 20th century, when it was part of the collection of the Marquises of Anglesey,” Andrés White Correal, president of Sotheby's jewelry department, told AFP when it was exhibited. the necklace exhibition in London in September.

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 their daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953.

Beyond that, little is known about the necklace, including who designed it and who it was commissioned for, although the auction house believes such a stunning antique jewel could only have been created 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 just a few years before she was guillotined.

That scandal involved a penniless noblewoman named Jeanne de la Motte who posed as a confidant of the queen and managed to acquire a luxurious diamond-encrusted necklace in her name, in exchange for the promise of later payment.

While the queen was later found to be innocent in the matter, the scandal deepened the perception of her careless extravagance, adding to the anger that the revolution would unleash.

Sotheby's said the diamonds in the necklace sold Wednesday likely came from “the legendary Golconda mines in India,” considered producers of the purest and most dazzling diamonds.