Marie-Antoinette’s bracelets go for CHF7.5 million at Geneva auction

The queen's jewels: the pair of bracelets auctioned in Geneva. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

The diamond jewels once worn by the guillotined queen were sold within five minutes in Geneva, at a price well above expected.

During the French Revolution, which would lead to her and her husband King Louis XVI being executed in 1793, Marie-Antoinette shipped her jewels to her native Austria. Tuesday evening’s sale at Christie’s auction house in Geneva was the first time the pair of bracelets – until now passed down among descendants of European royals – have gone under the hammer.

The items, made from 112 diamonds, were expected to fetch a price of CHF4 million ($4.38). In the end, the total amount, including commission, was CHF7.5 million. The buyer, who bid by phone, was not named.

In 2018 in Geneva, Sotheby’s (another auction house) sold off a significant lot of Marie-Antoinette’s jewels for over CHF50 million – including a pearl pendant, which the queen would suspend from a necklace, which went for CHF36.4 million.

Olivier Wagner, an expert with Sotheby’s (another auction house) told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that the market for precious jewels is “very promising and dynamic at the moment”. He said there was a big demand for historical jewellery, especially among Asian clients.

“These [historical pieces] are jewels with a unique origin. People want to identify with those who owned them at the time, and they are ready to pay a price for this, for a history which is worth a lot more than the material value of the object,” Wagner said.

Russian items

On Wednesday, Sotheby’s is auctioning a brooch and a pair of clip-on earrings which once belonged to the family of the last Czars of Russia. Specifically, the jewellery – made of sapphire and diamond – belonged to Maria Pavlovna, the aunt of the last Czar Nicholas II.

The estimated price is between $300,000 and $500,000. Wagner says however that given the form of the market, this is a “conservative” estimate.

Beyond jewellery, on Thursday Sotheby’s will auction a pair of Nike sneakers that belonged to Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers basketball player who died in a helicopter crash in California last year. The shoes are expected to fetch up to CHF35,000. Bryant wore the sneakers in a March 17, 2004, victory over the L.A. Clippers, Sotheby’s said.