Auction for last French Queen’s jewels

MARIE Antoinette’s dazzling diamonds and pearls, unseen in public for two centuries, will go on sale in Geneva tomorrow in what is being billed as one of the most important royal jewelry auctions in history.

The treasures were secretly whisked out of Paris in 1791 as King Louis XVI, his queen and their children prepared to escape during the French Revolution.

They are part of a major collection, held by the Italian royal House of Bourbon-Parma, that is being sold by Sotheby’s auction house.

Out of the more than 100 lots, 10 pieces belonged to the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the revolution.

“It is the sale of the 21st century. Because how do you top Marie Antoinette?” Andres White Correal, Sotheby’s senior director of jewelry, said.

The highlight is Marie Antoinette’s Pearl, a natural pearl and diamond pendant valued at US$1 million to US$2 million.

According to accounts written by the queen’s lady in waiting, Madame Campan, Marie Antoinette sent the jewels to Brussels, governed by her sister Archduchess MarieChristine, before being sent on to the French queen’s native Austria, and to her nephew, the emperor.

Marie Antonette’s daughter Marie Therese was given the jewels. She had no children herself, but passed them on to her niece and adopted daughter, Louise of France, Duchess of Parma, who in turn left them to her son, Robert I, the last ruling Duke of Parma.