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A diamond brooch originally owned by French queen Marie Antoinette, pegged to go for $ 80,000 (about P4.2 million), sold for $ 1.75 million, excluding fees, one of several pieces . Image: Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP
A pearl and diamond owned by Marie Antoinette before it was sold during the French Revolution sold for $ 36 million (around P1.9 billion) at auction on Wednesday, shattering its pre-sale estimate of up to $ 2 million.
The Sotheby's auction at an ultra-luxurious hotel on the banks of the Lake Geneva, England. The Fiction of a 10-piece collection owned by the ill-fated queen, featuring jewels unseen in public for two centuries.
The 10 items, which had been estimated to total about $ 3 million, nearly $ 43 million, Sotheby's said.
A diamond brooch pegged to go for roughly $ 80,000 (about P4.2 million) sold for $ 1.75 million, excluding fees, one of several pieces.
Sotheby's said to go on an anonymous, private buyer, without giving further details.
Sotheby's also said a new record for a pearl.
"Marie Antoinette's is simply irreplaceable and the price is more than the gem itself," Eddie LeVian, chief executive of jewelers Le Vian, said in a statement.
"It's catching everyone's imagination," he added.
"This is the ultimate proof, if it was needed, that the world's rare, natural fancy colored diamond and pearls jewels as investments, and especially those with royal provenance."
Journey through Europe
Marie Antoinette's treasures were 100 pieces held by the Italian Royal House of Bourbon-Parma.
Sotheby's, which had the most important royal jewellery auction in history, said the night did not disappoint.
The 100 lots earned a total of $ 53.1 million – compared to a pre-sale estimate of $ 4.2 million – a performance record that was best set in 1987 when Sotheby's sold a collection of jeweled gold by the House of Windsor.
Marie Antoinette, who is a historian, has been reviled by the French public in the past, in the midst of a financial crisis, was guillotined in Paris in October 1793 at the age of 37.
After her death, her jewels followed a winding path highlighting European power dynamics in the 18th and 19th centuries.
According to accounts written by the queen's lady-in-waiting, Madame Campan, Marie Antoinette spent all evening in the Tuileries Palace wrapping all her diamonds, rubies and pearls in cotton and enclosing them in a wooden chest.
Archduchess Marie-Christine, before being felt on the French queen's native Austria, and in the safe-keeping of her nephew, the emperor.
In 1792, the royal family was imprisoned in Paris. The king and queen were executed the next year, and their 10-year-old died in captivity.
Only their daughter, Marie Therese of France, survived. She was sent to Austria in 1796, where she was given her mother's jewels.
Duchess of Parma, Louise of France, Duchess of Parma, Robert I (1848-1907), The Last Ruling Duke of Parma.
They have been privately owned by ever since. AB
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