Editor’s Note
This article describes the remarkable auction of a pink diamond once owned by Marie-Antoinette, which sold for a sum far exceeding its pre-sale estimate. It serves as a potent reminder of the enduring allure and historical weight carried by objects from a tumultuous past.
Estimated between €2.5 and €4 million, Marie-Antoinette’s pink diamond was sold for €12 million during an exceptional auction at Christie’s in New York on Tuesday, June 17.
Known for her taste for luxury, Marie-Antoinette possessed, during her lifetime, a sumptuous collection of jewels and diamonds, each more exceptional than the last. This collection earned her many criticisms at the court of Versailles. While she was stripped of all her possessions upon her arrest in 1792, some of her pieces survived her and traveled through the centuries. More than 200 years after her death, the jewels of Louis XVI’s wife continue to fascinate. Just last November, a diamond necklace of nearly 300 carats, whose gems could be those from the famous “Queen’s Necklace” affair, was sold for €4.5 million at Sotheby’s in Geneva, after a fierce bidding war lasting over seven minutes between buyers eager to acquire the exceptional piece. Seven months later, a new record has been broken.
On Tuesday, June 17, as part of its summer “Magnificent Jewels” auction, Christie’s put up for sale around a hundred lots of unparalleled prestige and deep historical significance, including one stone that attracted all eyes. Nicknamed “The Marie-Thérèse Pink Diamond,” the jewel of royal splendor exceeded all expectations, reaching a record price: estimated between €2.5 and €4 million, it was finally sold for more than three times its estimate, at €12 million.
The Marie-Thérèse pink diamond, named after Marie-Antoinette’s only surviving daughter who inherited the gem upon her mother’s arrest, is a rare fancy diamond with shades of pink and violet that vary depending on the light, in a 10.38-carat kite shape.
Today, set in a ring mounted by the Parisian jeweler JAR and topped with 17 pavé diamonds forming a fleur-de-lis, the symbol of the French monarchy, the stone recalls the exceptional jewelry of the 18th century and the genius of the jeweler from the sovereign’s era. With this new sale, the piece achieves a new double record: that of the most expensive jewel by the Parisian jeweler, and also that of the most expensive diamond with purplish-pink hues.
Just after the failure of her escape to Varennes in 1791, Marie-Antoinette is said to have entrusted her jewels to her faithful hairdresser, “in the hope of retrieving them one day,” recounts the auction house. Fate unfortunately decided otherwise, and her legacy then passed into the hands of her daughter, also nicknamed Madame Royale. The diamond subsequently passed successively through the hands of several generations of European nobility before being put up for sale in 1996.
Alongside Marie-Antoinette’s pink diamond, Christie’s presented another piece of exceptional rarity: the “Belle Bleue,” a 392.52-carat Ceylon sapphire of exceptional luminous intensity, sold for €9.8 million.
All the lots finally found buyers, for the staggering sum of €76 million.