Liz’s diamond necklace and a £5.7m battle with Christie’s
IT was the diamond Richard Burton gave to Dame Elizabeth Taylor on her 40th birthday.
But four years after her death, the stunning ‘Taj Mahal’ jewel is at the centre of a bitter row between Christie’s and her estate.
The auctioneers have demanded back the £5.7 million generated from the sale of the diamond, after the buyer returned it.
In a US lawsuit, the actress’s trustees accused Christie’s of breach of contract, ‘bad faith and self-serving conduct’. They allege it’s failed to pay them for other items at the auction, to gain an ‘unfair advantage’ in the dispute.
The 1,778-lot sale in 2011 raised £118 million, the most expensive single-session jewellery auction ever, all for Dame Elizabeth’s AIDS Foundation. The lawsuit says the buyer of the diamond returned it a few months later, apparently doubting its provenance.
The jewel gets its name from the belief it was given to Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal. But the trustees argue the buyer’s claim is invalid because sale literature only described the diamond as of ‘Indian origin’.
Their lawsuit reads: ‘Despite facing no credible threat of legal liability, Christie’s rescinded the sale … it violated its obligations to the trust.’ Christie’s said it looked forward to a ‘speedy resolution’ of the matter.