In last weeks post I told you about the Peregrina pearl and the auction it sold in (read here) and in this weeks I will be telling you a little bit more about the landmark auction that sold them and also about the Krupp diamond, Elizabeth Taylors favourite piece of her massive jewellery collection.
The collections of Elizabeth Taylor went under the hammer in New York at Christie's Rockefeller saleroom from 3-17 December 2011.
The interest in the sale was world wide and people from 36 different countries were bidding for a piece of the Hollywood icon.
Christie's ran their first ever online auction at the same time as the live auctions and received over 57,000 bids during the sale which added up to a massive extra $9.5million sold. In total 26 of the lots for sale sold for over a million.
It wasn't just her jewellery either, her clothes went up for auction too and featured pieces she had worn on the red carpet, pieces from famous dinner dates and her yellow wedding dress from her marriage to Richard Burton.
Before the auction even started the collection had been apart of a exhibition which toured around the world and stopped at United Kingdom, Moscow, Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong Geneva and Dubai.
On the 16th December the Krupp Diamond went up for sale and made a massive $8,818,500.
The diamond is 33.19 Carat and has a Asscher Cut which is when the diamond is cut in a square stepped cut. It also has a Culet Facet (flat bottom) which dates it to pre 1920's experts think as the Culet was phased out after then.
The Krupp Diamond is chemically pure and potentially flawless with exceptional transparency making it a very rare diamond.
It's name comes from it's previous owner, the actress Vera Krupp, the 2nd wife of the German steel magnate Alfred Krupp who supplied munitions for the second world war. It was sold as part of the Krupp Estate.
In 1959 the Krupp Diamond became part of a heist in Las Vegas, the FBI where called in to investigate. The thieves had seen Vera Krupp wore the diamond ring a lot and on the 10th of April 1959 broke into her ranch in Las Vegas by force and ripped the ring from her finger before tying her and the other people present, some foremen, up with the wire from a lamp. They also took $700,000, a camera and a revolver but where eventually found. The culprits put the diamond up for sale 6 weeks later in New Jersey which proved to be their downfall and the FBI found them and the diamond and it was returned to Vera Krupp. The culprits where prosecuted and imprisoned.
The diamond was the first piece of jewellery Richard Burton brought for Taylor when he brought it in 1968 for $305,000.
When Elizabeth Taylor died on 23 March 2011, the Diamond was renamed The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond.
The ring sold to the South Korean conglomerate E-Land.
Next week in the last part of the Elizabeth Taylor series of posts I'll tell you about the wedding rings of Taylor and Burton and explore more about the turbulent marriage of this original golden couple of Hollywood.
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The collections of Elizabeth Taylor went under the hammer in New York at Christie's Rockefeller saleroom from 3-17 December 2011.
The interest in the sale was world wide and people from 36 different countries were bidding for a piece of the Hollywood icon.
Christie's ran their first ever online auction at the same time as the live auctions and received over 57,000 bids during the sale which added up to a massive extra $9.5million sold. In total 26 of the lots for sale sold for over a million.
It wasn't just her jewellery either, her clothes went up for auction too and featured pieces she had worn on the red carpet, pieces from famous dinner dates and her yellow wedding dress from her marriage to Richard Burton.
Before the auction even started the collection had been apart of a exhibition which toured around the world and stopped at United Kingdom, Moscow, Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong Geneva and Dubai.
On the 16th December the Krupp Diamond went up for sale and made a massive $8,818,500.
The diamond is 33.19 Carat and has a Asscher Cut which is when the diamond is cut in a square stepped cut. It also has a Culet Facet (flat bottom) which dates it to pre 1920's experts think as the Culet was phased out after then.
The Krupp Diamond is chemically pure and potentially flawless with exceptional transparency making it a very rare diamond.
It's name comes from it's previous owner, the actress Vera Krupp, the 2nd wife of the German steel magnate Alfred Krupp who supplied munitions for the second world war. It was sold as part of the Krupp Estate.
In 1959 the Krupp Diamond became part of a heist in Las Vegas, the FBI where called in to investigate. The thieves had seen Vera Krupp wore the diamond ring a lot and on the 10th of April 1959 broke into her ranch in Las Vegas by force and ripped the ring from her finger before tying her and the other people present, some foremen, up with the wire from a lamp. They also took $700,000, a camera and a revolver but where eventually found. The culprits put the diamond up for sale 6 weeks later in New Jersey which proved to be their downfall and the FBI found them and the diamond and it was returned to Vera Krupp. The culprits where prosecuted and imprisoned.
The diamond was the first piece of jewellery Richard Burton brought for Taylor when he brought it in 1968 for $305,000.
Taylor wrote in her book 'Elizabeth Taylor: My Love affair With Jewelry' “When it came up for auction in the late 1960s, I thought how perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it.”
Elizabeth Taylor wore it as a ring and it often featured in films, and personal appearances she was in. It even made an appearance in the 1992 Simpsons episode when she is seen polishing her ring with a toothbrush and looks into the sparkle of the ring on her finger. When Elizabeth Taylor died on 23 March 2011, the Diamond was renamed The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond.
The ring sold to the South Korean conglomerate E-Land.
Next week in the last part of the Elizabeth Taylor series of posts I'll tell you about the wedding rings of Taylor and Burton and explore more about the turbulent marriage of this original golden couple of Hollywood.
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