At the Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels auction, held by Christie’s yesterday (November 27) in Hong Kong, the auction house raked in HKD 116,537,500 ($14,884,752) from the sale of the “Peacock Necklace” – a necklace of 21 Kashmir sapphires, weighing a total of 109.08 carats.
According to Christie’s, the rare necklace took “more than 15 years to complete”. It features 21 well-matched sapphires which took years to cut and polish. It took nine months alone, according to the auction house, “to engrave the peacock-feather patterns onto the platinum mounting”.
Another buzz-worthy item sold was the Moon of Baroda – a 24.04-carat pear-shaped, Fancy Yellow diamond worn by Marilyn Monroe when she sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” while promoting the 1953 classic film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Christie’s sold the diamond for $1.3 million – almost double its high estimate of $750,000.
All in all, Christie’s raked in HKD 470,215,000 (about $60 million) from the sale.
