Image: Marie Antoinette diamond bracelets – Christie’s
Two sparkling diamond bracelets of the French Queen Marie Antoinette will be auctioned together in Geneva in November.
Two sparkling diamond bracelets of the French Queen Marie Antoinette will be auctioned together in Geneva in November. The value of the bracelets, set with numerous diamonds, is estimated at two to four million dollars (1.8 to 3.7 million euros), as the auction house Christie’s announced. The two bracelets, which can also be put together to form a necklace, consist of 112 diamonds totaling 140 to 150 carats.
The estimated price results not only from the material value of the diamonds, but also from the sentimental value of “wearing jewelry once worn by the famous Queen Marie Antoinette,” said Christie’s jewelry expert Marie-Cécile Cisamolo.
The bracelets could become much more expensive
The historic jewels could still fetch a much higher price at the auction on November 9: in 2018, a pearl pendant of the former queen set with diamonds had been estimated by the auction house Sotheby’s at one to two million dollars – the piece of jewelry then then went all the way to 36 million dollars.
“The market for noble jewels continues to perform very well,” said François Curiel, head of Christie’s luxury department.
The queen paid 250,000 livres at the time
Marie Antoinette was the last queen of France before the Revolution, she was executed by guillotine in October 1793 at the age of 37. According to Christie’s, Marie Antoinette had commissioned the diamond bracelets from Parisian jeweler Charles Auguste Boehmer in 1776. The queen had paid 250,000 livres for them, a “huge sum” at the time, Cisamolo said.
