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The most valuable jewellery auction in history took place at Christie’s New York this week.

Elizabeth Taylor’s collection of jewels surpassed expectations fetching record prices – the auction house reporting that the first of the four day sale garnered $115.9 million, making it the most valuable jewellery auction ever known. All of the 80 lots placed on offer were sold.

The top lot sold on Wednesday was ''La Peregrina'', a natural pearl, diamond, ruby and cultured pearl necklace by Cartier which fetched $11.8 million, setting a record for a pearl jewel sold at auction. Someone’s in luck this Christmas!

The famous ''Elizabeth Taylor Diamond,'' a rectangular-shaped, 33.19-carat, D, and potentially flawless diamond sold for $8.8 million, or $265,697 per carat, to a private Asian buyer. The diamond was given to Taylor in 1968 by her then husband Richard Burton, and had a presale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million, and set a new auction record for a colourless diamond per carat.

The third top lot was ''The Taj Mahal Diamond,'' which was a gift from Burton on Taylor's 40th birthday. The piece is an imperial Mughal Spinal necklace weighing 1,131.59 carats set with an inscribed heart-shaped table-cut diamond sold for $8.8 million, against a presale estimate of $500,000.

Other big sellers included an 18.26-carat, emerald and diamond pendant brooch by Bulgari, which sold for $6.6 million, or $360,268 per carat, while an emerald and diamond necklace by Bulgari fetched $6.1 million.

In total, seven new auction records were set, including the price per carat for a colourless diamond and for a ruby; a pair of natural pearl ear pendants; a pearl jewel; an Indian jewel and an emerald jewel, Christie’s reported.

Source: Diamonds.net by Rapaport - flickr.com image by Luiz Fernando.

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