Marie Antoinette’s Bracelets

CAPTURED BY

Antoine Jean-Gros, who painted a portrait of Marie Thérèse, Antoinette’s daughter wearing the bracelets in 1816. He’s best known for a painting of Napoleon visiting bubonic plague victims in Jaffa.

WHERE HAS IT BEEN ALL THIS TIME?

In the same wooden box that the queen sent to an Austrian ambassador when she was imprisoned in Paris during the revolution. She was beheaded shortly thereafter, so the bracelets may be cursed.

BOUGHT FROM

Boehmer et Bassenge, which also made a scandalous necklace that helped spark the French Revolution.

PURCHASED FOR

250,000 livres, although the queen didn’t have that much in cash at the time. She made a down payment of 29,000 livres and traded in some other gems instead.

MADE OF

112 diamonds ranging from one to 4.5 carats, all set in gold and silver.

LOOKS LIKE

Contemporary tennis bracelets.

(The pair may have even inspired the style.)

ALSO IN THEIR COLLECTION

More jewellery. The queen had an insatiable appetite for it and the pieces still appeal to collectors today. Her pearl-and-diamond necklace sold for a whopping US$36.1 million in 2018.

SUBSEQUENT OWNERS

The bracelets stayed in the family for a few years, but they were given to auction house Christie’s by an anonymous royal.