- Man Utd stadium regeneration could add £7.3bn to British economy
- At COP16, Colombia seeks to lead by example on biodiversity
- Dupont caps off Olympic gold season with Top 14 player award
- Leeds to expand Elland Road to 53,000 capacity
- Mysterious 18th century diamond necklace set for auction
- World's oceans near critical acidification level: report
- California sues oil giant Exxon over plastic recycling 'myth'
- As wars rage, UN's critics say global body is failing its mission
- Amazon forest has lost an area the size of Germany and France
- Nadal, Alcaraz and Sinner in Davis Cup finals teams
- Telegram's Durov announces new crackdown on illegal content
- African players in Europe: Ice-cool Jackson strikes twice
- Man City's Rodri 'out for season' after ACL injury: reports
- Venezuelan court issues arrest warrant for Argentina's Milei
- Arsenal not yet a match for Man City-Liverpool rivalry, says Silva
- Black Eyed Peas star harnesses AI for novel radio product
- England cricket captain Knight reprimanded over 'blackface' photo
- Gunman revealed Trump plot months before golf course arrest: DOJ
- Iran president accuses Israel of seeking conflict, says opposes war
- Swedish battery maker Northvolt to slash 1,600 jobs, quarter of staff
- Joshua says boxing career 'far from over' after Dubois defeat
- Stock markets inch higher on rate hopes
- Friedkin Group reach deal to buy Everton
- UniCredit ups stake in Commerzbank to 21 percent
- Big rate cut was 'appropriate' first step: Fed official
- Man City's Akanji sends defiant title message after Arsenal battle
- Madrid's 'many styles' key to unbeaten streak: Ancelotti
- Barca goalkeeper Ter Stegen to undergo knee operation
- French mass rape trial moves on to new defendants
- UK's Labour looks to be more cheerful despite gifts and welfare row
- Eurozone business activity slumps after Olympics boost
- Russia, Ukraine cross swords in sea dispute court battle
- Albania plans Sufi Muslim microstate within its borders
- EU launches WTO challenge against China dairy probe
- Murdoch's REA ups offer for property website Rightmove
- India's one-horned rhino numbers charging ahead, govt says
- Israel warns Lebanese as wave of strikes hits Hezbollah
- New Socceroos coach Popovic confident he can rescue World Cup campaign
- 'Put Austrians first': On a pub crawl with far-right voters
- Trial begins in Italy student murder case that opened eyes to femicide
- Family of murdered Sri Lanka editor seek justice from new president
- Austria's far right woos anti-vaxxers with fund for vaccine 'victims'
- Long wait for justice in India's backlogged courts
- Rohingya refugees detail worsening violence in Myanmar
- Rescuers comb muddy riverbanks after Japan floods kill six
- Indonesia, NZ deny Papua rebel claim 'bribe' paid for pilot release
- Swearing, shoeys and swift legs: Singapore GP talking points
- South Korea warns of 'decisive' action against trash balloons
- Football Australia names Tony Popovic as Socceroos coach
- Japan quake, flood victim attemps fresh start with wife's memory
CMSC | -0.32% | 25.07 | $ | |
BCE | 0.17% | 35.1 | $ | |
SCS | 0.73% | 13.015 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.06% | 25.005 | $ | |
RBGPF | 3.11% | 58.83 | $ | |
JRI | -0.23% | 13.29 | $ | |
NGG | 1.28% | 70.455 | $ | |
GSK | 0.13% | 40.855 | $ | |
RIO | 1.56% | 64.575 | $ | |
BCC | 3.01% | 141.76 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.56% | 7.06 | $ | |
AZN | -1.61% | 77.14 | $ | |
VOD | 0.99% | 10.11 | $ | |
BTI | 1.2% | 37.895 | $ | |
BP | 0.65% | 32.855 | $ | |
RELX | 1.75% | 48.845 | $ |
Mysterious 18th century diamond necklace set for auction
A mysterious 18th century necklace made from around 500 diamonds, some of which are believed to have been taken from a piece that contributed to Marie Antoinette's demise, will go on sale in November, Sotheby's said on Monday.
The piece, from a private Asian collection, will go under the hammer in Geneva on November 11, with online bidding opening on the auction house's website on October 25.
The necklace, which is composed of three rows of diamonds finished with a diamond tassel at each end, will make its first public appearance in 50 years on Monday, and is expected to fetch between $1.8 and $2.8 million.
"It's a wonderful find because, normally, jewellery in the 18th century was broken up in order to be repurposed... so to have an intact piece of the Georgian period of this importance, this amount of carats... is absolutely fabulous," Andres White Correal, chairman of the Sotheby's jewelry department, told AFP.
"The jewel has passed from families to families. We can start at the early 20th century when it was part of the collection of the Marquesses of Anglesey," he added.
Members of this aristocratic family are believed to have worn the jewel twice in public: once at the 1937 coronation of King George VI and once at his daughter Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.
Beyond that, little is known of the necklace, including who designed it and for whom it was commissioned, although the auction house believes that such an impressive antique jewel could only have been created for a royal family.
It probably would have been made during the decade preceding the French Revolution, it added.
It is thought that some of the diamonds may have come from the famous necklace linked to what became the scandal of the "Affair of the Necklace", which contributed to the advent of the French Revolution and eventually Marie-Antoinette's death, said Sotheby's.
The auction house said the diamonds are likely to have been sourced "from the legendary Golconda mines in India".
The diamonds from Golconda are still considered to be the purest and most dazzling ever mined.
The necklace will be on public display in London until Wednesday before beginning a tour that will take it to Hong Kong, New York and Taiwan.
H.Portela--PC