Editor’s Note
This article highlights Christie’s upcoming “Magnificent Jewels” auction in New York, featuring historic pieces like a diamond once owned by Marie Antoinette.
Auction house Christie’s will hold its “Magnificent Jewels” auction at Rockefeller Center in New York, USA, on June 17 (local time). The event will feature historic items, including the “Marie Therese Pink Diamond” once owned by Marie Antoinette.
The purple-pink modified kite brilliant cut diamond weighs 10.38 carats and is believed to date from the mid-18th century. Its estimated hammer price is between $3 million and $5 million (approximately 430 million to 710 million yen).
According to Christie’s, on the eve of her failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791, Antoinette entrusted her valuable jewels to her loyal hairdresser, hoping to reclaim them one day. Having failed to escape the revolution, Antoinette never saw the jewels again.
Antoinette’s collection was inherited by her only surviving daughter, Marie-Therese Charlotte, and later passed to her niece, Marie-Therese de Chambord. While details are unclear, the “Marie Therese Pink Diamond” is believed to have been part of this inheritance.
Subsequently, a will was discovered indicating that Maria Theresa of Bavaria was the second owner of the pink diamond. The will mentioned a “pink solitaire diamond gifted by Aunt Chambord,” which was kept in a velvet case bearing the imperial coat of arms of Austria, along with a hairpin from around 1868.
In 1996, the pink diamond was offered by a European royal family in Geneva, Switzerland, and had remained out of public view until now. The gem was set into a modern-design ring by Parisian jeweler Joel Arthur Rosenthal.
While most of Antoinette’s jewelry is said to have been lost during the French Revolution, some pieces have been passed down for nearly two centuries. Many are now in private hands, though items like earrings can be viewed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
