If a gem is good enough for Marie Antoinette, it’s no surprise it broke a world record at auction.
The Marie-Thérèse Pink, a stunning fancy pink-purple diamond that may have ties to the French royal family, just hammered down for $13.98 million, a new benchmark for a diamond in that hue. The 10.38-carat wonder was just one of the many stones up for grabs at Christie’s latest Magnificent Jewels event.
And there’s quite a story behind the gem. As the tale goes, right before Marie Antoinette attempted to escape from Paris (known as the Flight to Varennes), the famed royal collected her treasure trove of jewels—believed to include the fancy purple-pink kite-shaped brilliant-cut diamond—and gave them to her coiffeur. Then, in the wake of the monarchy’s fall and the eventual death of the royal family, the rare gems were placed in the possession of Duchess Marie-Thérèse de Angoulême, the family’s sole heir. Years later, a will revealed the diamond’s owner to be Queen Marie Theresa of Bavaria, with the gem described as a gift from “Aunt Chambord.”
The Blue Belle, which hammered down for $11.3 million.
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025
The Marie-Thérèse Pink, likely from circa 1868, far surpassed its top estimate of $7 million with its $13.98 million price. The piece is currently mounted on a ring by JAR; the lot also set a record for a creation from the famed Paris-based American jeweler.
Another stand-out from the sale was the Blue Belle, a massive 392.52-carat Ceylon sapphire unearthed back in 1925. That gem previously held the record for the most expensive sapphire sold at auction when it hammered down for $17.5 million in 2014 via Christie’s. This time around, though, it wasn’t the belle of the ball: Estimated to fetch between $8 million and $12 million, the stone garnered $11.3 million—an impressive sum, but short of its previous sale figure. Still, Blue Belle is pretty show-stopping, as sapphires of this size are very rare indeed, Christie’s says.
The nearly 1,150-cart Mughal carved emerald necklace.
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2025
The auction had plenty of other stunners up for grabs. From the collection of philanthropist Lucille Colemand, a Van Cleef & Arpels brooch toppled its top estimate three times over, selling for a whopping $1,562,500. Other stately pieces also fetched a pretty sum at the event, too. An about 1,150-carat Mughal carved emerald necklace from a royal collection hammered down for $6.22 million, while two other necklaces from the trove sold for $5,555,500 and $3,014,500. The trio are especially valuable, given that emperors during the Mughal dynasty (ranging from 1526 to 1857) placed a special spiritual significance onto their jewelry. Emeralds, for one, were thought to bestow wisdom, healing, and eternal life onto the wearer, Christie’s says.
“This season’s results highlight the tremendous demand for jewels of exceptional rarity, provenance, and craftsmanship,” Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s international head of jewelry, said in a statement.
Christie’s had more than one reason to celebrate, too: The Magnificent Jewels event saw 100 percent of its offerings sold in the highest total ever for a various-owner jewelry auction in the house’s Americas division. How’s that for dazzling?
