Photo: Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty Images
Marie-Antoinette‘s love of jewelry created scandal and public uprising. Ultimately, it caused the fall of France’s royal court and her death.
Two hundred years later, one surviving piece — unseen for 200 years — is up for auction. Estimated value: $1,000,000 to $2,000,000.
History recognizes Marie-Antoinette’s indulgences, excesses and involvement in the “affair of the diamond necklace,” a piece so elaborate and rare that its expense, enmeshed in a failed cover-up, roiled a tabloid-like mix of outrage and scandal. When the rumors became public trials, they turned the French against their once-popular, Austrian-born queen and sealed her eventual fate. (She was beheaded on October 16, 1793.)
No less an authority on French history than Napoleon himself believed the necklace to be at the core of the public backlash. “The Queen’s death,” he mused while in exile on Elba, “must be dated from that diamond necklace trial.”
Caught as the Revolution darkened into the Reign of Terror, the royal family were eventually imprisoned. The king and queen were placed on trial separately and both executed.
However, their oldest child, the teenage Marie-Thérese, would become the only member of the royal family to survive. Held in solitary confinement, “Madame Royale” was finally released on the eve of her 17th birthday. Arriving in Vienna in Jan. 1796, she reclaimed her mother’s jewels, which have since passed down in the Bourbon-Parma line.
Along with the pearl brooch, the upcoming sale includes two additional pieces that reflect the splendor of Versailles, including a 331-pearl diamond clasped necklace (estimated value: $200,000 to $300,000) and a pair of diamond-capped pearl earrings (estimated at $30,000 to $50,000).
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source: people.com
