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Marie Antoinette Diamond Bracelets Up for Auction, Christie’s Announces

Two diamond bracelets that once belonged to Marie Antoinette and one composed of ruby ​​and diamonds, this one given to the Duchess of Windsor by her husband on their first wedding anniversary, will go up for auction in Geneva next week, Christie’s said on Wednesday ( 3).

A blue velvet box labeled “Queen Marie Antoinette’s bracelets” contains the pair, each made up of three strands of diamonds and a large clasp that holds a total of 112 diamonds.

The bracelets, now owned by a European royal family, are expected to fetch $2 to $4 million at the Nov. 9 auction, said Christie’s, which specializes in auctions.

“Finding jewelry with over 200 years of French royal history is really something collectors and jewelry lovers around the world will be looking forward to,” said Max Fawcett, head of the jewelry department at Christie’s in Geneva.

“How much is someone willing to pay for something from the last queen of France? We have seen the results of Marie Antoinette’s things sold before. There really is no height limit. [do preço] that these can reach and I am expecting fireworks on Tuesday”.

Marie Antoinette, who sent a letter from the Paris Tuileries prison saying that a wooden chest of jewels would be sent for safekeeping, was guillotined in 1793. Her surviving daughter, Marie Therese, Madame Royale, received the jewels upon arriving in Austria, said the auction house.

An Art Deco ruby ​​with a diamond bangle, commissioned by the Duke of Windsor – the man who abdicated the throne to marry the duchess – was given to his American wife on their first wedding anniversary, Christie’s said.

The pre-order estimate is 1 million to 2 million Swiss francs ($1.10 million to $2.19 million), she said.

The Duchess’s designer jewelry collection was first offered at auction at a sale held along Lake Geneva in 1987, where bids soared, far exceeding pre-sale estimates.

Rival Sotheby’s will offer Russian royal jewelry smuggled out of the country during the 1917 revolution, along with rare-colored diamonds, on Nov. 10 in Geneva.

Sotheby’s told Reuters it was looking for collectors emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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