Worn by the Hollywood star for the film Men Prefer Blondes, the “Moon of Baroda” cognac diamond belonged to Maharadjas and Marie Antoinette’s mother.
When Marilyn Monroe discovers it in 1954, during the promotional tour of the film Men Prefer Blondes, she is literally overwhelmed: the photo, taken while the actress discovers the stone, has become a legend. Stunned by its beauty, the actress would have simply exclaimed: “It’s gorgeous“. Marilyn will wear the famous stone, attached to a leather lace …
But where does this 24-carat yellow diamond, known as the “Moon of Baroda“, come from? Just like the “Hope” diamond, the “Moon of Baroda” has its legend, its mystery, and its hidden side.
Discovered in the legendary Golconde mines in India between the 13th and 15th centuries, this treasure is named after the city of Baroda, located in what is now the state of Gujarat, where it is cut in the characteristic shape used to adorn the headdresses of the nobility. So far, nothing unusual. For five centuries, the diamond remained the property of the ruling family, the Gaekwads of Baroda.
And then, by a coincidence not yet elucidated, the diamond is found in the cassette of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mother of Marie Antoinette. Was it a diplomatic gift? However, when the empress died in 1780, some people claimed that the diamond had brought her bad luck…
It is now back on the world stage. Back to Baroda, after having passed through the hands of one of the most powerful empresses of Europe, nicknamed “the man of the century”: the diamond, now mounted in a pendant, returned to the Gaekwads for a few decades, alongside other extraordinary stones, including the “Star of the South“, the “Princess Eugenie” and the “English Dresden“…
It was in the late 1940s that the diamond finally landed in the hands of a Detroit jeweler. Why did it do so? Here again, the mystery remains total. It is known that some Indian royal families, seeing the end of the British domination, were anxious to secure their assets. Some say that it is during the 1920s that Maharaja Sayajrao Gaekwad III – one of the most powerful of the country – would have sold it, for an unknown sum, to a mysterious buyer. Astonishing, while at the same time, the very young and elegant Maharaja of Indore became the darling of Paris, where he spent lavishly…
The diamond is on the road again. In 1944, it was in the hands of a Mr. Deutsch, the president of a Cleveland, Ohio, stonecutting company.
Nine years later, it was in the hands of Meyer Rosenbaum, a Detroit diamond dealer. It is this same year that Marilyn will wear this stone of a rare canary yellow, immediately ensuring it a celebrity which will not prevent it, once again, from disappearing.
In 1990, it appeared at auction at Christie’s, in New York, where it tripled the estimates, approaching 300,000 dollars. Remaining in a private collection, it reappeared again – and again at Christie’s, but in Hong Kong this time, where it was offered at auction accompanied by a photo signed by the American star. This time, the stone doubled its price: estimated at 750,000 dollars, it finally went for 1.5 million dollars. Since then, the “Moon of Baroda” diamond has been kept somewhere out of sight…
