Liz Taylor’s Jewels Fetch $116 Million
This tiara sold for $4.2 million. Image by Getty Images
It is no secret that Elizabeth Taylor loved jewelry. The fact that her signature fragrance was called White Diamonds was a big hint, as was the fact that she always appeared in public laden with baubles and bangles (the real kind).
So, it may not come as a shock that the auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels netted a cool $116 million, some of which will benefit the late screen legend’s Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. The final tally was, however, a surprise for Christie’s, which thought the jewelry would bring in only $20 million.
On the block were 80 items, many of which were gifts from her numerous ex-husbands and close friends like the late Michael Jackson. Her Cartier-designed necklace with a 16th-century pearl sold for $11.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a pearl necklace. Gawker reports that Taylor’s then-husband Richard Burton paid only $37,000 for the necklace when he bought it.
Among the other items that fetched high prices were a 33-carat diamond ring that sold for $8.8 million and a tiara that went for $4.2 million.
There’s been no word as to who the purchasers of Liz’s jewels are. But if you happen to see someone walking around wearing some very big white diamonds (and the Shmooze refers to actual diamonds, not some eau de toilette), that might be a good tip off.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
