Editor’s Note
This article details the remarkable auction of an 18th-century diamond necklace in Geneva, which sold for a sum far exceeding its pre-sale estimate. The piece’s pristine condition after centuries adds to its historic and financial significance.
An 18th-century necklace set with nearly 500 high-carat diamonds was auctioned in Geneva on Wednesday for 4.55 million euros. According to Andres White Correal, head of the jewelry department at auction house Sotheby’s, the necklace has survived the centuries “like a miracle” unscathed and had been estimated to be worth between 1.8 and 2.8 million dollars.
The necklace reportedly emerged from an Asian private collection. It is now being presented to the public for the first time in 50 years. After an exciting auction, the necklace finally changed hands for 3.55 million Swiss francs, achieving a final price of 4.26 million Swiss francs after taxes and commissions.
The necklace, crafted with three rows of diamonds, is flanked at both ends by impressive pompons. The workmanship highlights the transparency of the gemstones and gives this “rare and very important” piece great suppleness, according to a statement from the auction house.
Some of the diamonds from the extraordinary necklace are said to originate from the piece of jewelry at the center of the so-called “Affair of the Diamond Necklace” – a fraud scandal in which Queen Marie-Antoinette was also implicated in the 18th century.
White Correal explained that the necklace had been passed down within an aristocratic family. Two occasions are known when it was worn in public: the coronation of King George VI in 1937 and the coronation of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953.