A Georgian necklace believed to have been at the heart of the infamous “Diamond Necklace Affair,” which played a part in getting Marie Antoinette overthrown, has sold for an astonishing $4.81 million (£3.8 million) at auction. The necklace, with about 500 diamonds set into its 22-carat gold framework, fetched nearly double the amount expected in Geneva’s Sotheby’s auction house on an exciting auction night.
At Sotheby’s, the breathtaking piece headed an auction that kept jewelry collectors glued to their computer screens on Wednesday evening. “It was just an electric night,” said Andres White Correal, jewelry specialist at Sotheby’s. “The buyer was ecstatic getting it.” The History of The Necklace
Sold at auction, this necklace is thought to have survived the scandal that blackened the name of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France. Indeed, a lost diamond necklace meant for the queen was only one of the scandals involving the queen throughout the 1780s, which increased the public’s antipathy toward her.
A Keeper of History
The buyer hailed the item for its history. “She said something beautiful to me: ‘I’m exceptionally happy that I won this lot; but I don’t own it, I’m merely the custodian until the next person will come along,'” White Correal recalled. He continued to discuss his attraction to artifacts replete with historical provenance, stating: “People are not only buying the object, they are buying all the history attached to it.”
The “Affair of the Diamond Necklace”
Marie Antoinette was born in Austria in 1755 and was made to move to France at a tender age to wed the future King Louis XVI. The necklace being sold today is believed to be related to the scandalous “affair of the diamond necklace” that had surfaced in the 1780s as it had all to do with the fraudulent acquisition of an expensive necklace meant for the queen.
It was the handiwork of a scandalized noblewoman, Jeanne de la Motte. She masqueraded as the queen and convinced a cardinal to purchase the necklace on credit when he had no intention of paying for it. By this time, news came rushing to the queen that payment was soon to be made. And so she sparked a public trial involving the queen. Even though Marie Antoinette was acquitted by the end of it, this affair badly tarnished Marie Antoinette’s reputation.
Marie Antoinette’s Tainted Reputation
The affair left an indelible stain on the reputation of the innocent Marie Antoinette. As if to estrange further the French masses, who by then had already lost faith in the monarchy, she was seen to be excessive and detached from the reality of her people; it only served to increase the hate that the queen was harboring in the people. In 1793, both Marie Antoinette and her husband, King Louis XVI, were guillotined at the peak of the French Revolution.
The End of the Necklace
The original necklace consisted of 650 diamonds weighing around 2,800 carats. The black market sold what pieces it could after the scandal broke out. Some of the diamonds were even purchased from black markets within a few days of their disappearance by a jeweler in Bond Street, London.
According to the experts, the diamonds that appear in the necklace sold Wednesday seem to match those that have the original. This, they say, again strengthens the theory of this necklace and its direct link to the infamous scandal.
From the Marquess of Anglesey to a Private Collection
This is part of the Anglesey family jewelry collection, which goes back nearly 100 years. Marquess of Anglesey wore it when Queen Elizabeth II had her coronation in 1953 and, in fact, even earlier in King George VI’s coronation in 1937. Sold later to a private Asian collector in the early 1960s it remained out of public view until now.
(Includes inputs from online sources)
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