Marie Antoinette’s Jewels Achieve Record White Glove Sale

A natural pearl and diamond pendant, valued at up to $2m. This was one of the most prized items belonging to French Queen Marie Antoinette, which were being auctioned by Sotheby's in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday the 15th. The star lot of the ‘Royal Jewels from the Bourbon-Parma Family’ auction leaved its estimate far behind andestablished a new auction record for a natural pearl: it was sold for 36,427,000 CHF ($36m). 

The pendant was among ten pieces which once belonged to the Queen, all of which attracted fierce bidding. Together they realised a total of $42.7 million against a pre-sale estimate of $1.6–2.9 million.

Deputy Chair Daniela Mascetti said: «Tonight we saw the Marie Antoinette factor work its magic. No other queen is more famous for her love of jewels, and her personal treasures, pearls and diamonds that survived intact the tumults of history, captivated the interest of collectors around the world»

 The pendant, in fact, together with other aucution’s items, offered fascinating insights into the splendour of one of Europe’s most important royal dynasties. 

But let’s learn something about this fascinated dynasty. Descended from Louis XIV of France, the Holy Roman Emperors and from Pope Paul III, the Bourbon-Parma family is linked by blood to the most important ruling families of Europe - from the Bourbons to the Habsburgs. Members of the lineage include Kings of France and Spain, Emperors of Austria and the Dukes of Parma. This exceptional ancestry is evidenced in the extraordinary opulence and provenance of the pieces in the collection, led by a group of jewels, which once belonged to ill-fated queen of France. Never in the course of history has the destiny of a queen been so closely associated with jewels than that of Marie Antoinette. Her great love of pearls and diamonds is well-known and a number of historians have cited Napoleon’s view, that the so-called ‘affair of the diamond necklace’ – a scandal which tarnished the queen’s reputation in 1785 – was one of the causes of the French Revolution. Pondering on the consequences of this scandal during his exile on St Helena, Napoleon declared that «The Queen’s death must be dated from the diamond necklace trial.»