Marie Antoinette’s Bracelets Sold for $8.2 Million at Auction

The last queen of France Marie Antoinette’s diamond bracelets were sold for more than $8 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday.

Antoinette’s two bracelets are made up of three strands of diamonds and contain 112 stones. They were sold for $8.2 million, the second-highest price ever paid for a jewel belonging to Antoinette, and the highest price for a diamond jewel with this provenance, according to Christie's auction house.

Prior to the sale, the Christie’s auction house estimated that they could sell for between $2 million and $4 million.

“To find a historic piece that can be traced back over 200 years is incredibly rare,” Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva, said.

The queen bought the bracelets in 1776, just two years after taking the throne with her husband King Louis XVI, according to the auction house. During the French Revolution, she sent a trunk to the ambassador of the Austrian Empire for safekeeping in 1791.

When she was beheaded in 1793, the truck was opened and the bracelet was discovered and then given to Antoinette’s daughter, according to Christie's.

The bracelets were joined at auction by a ruby and diamond bracelet that once belonged to the Duchess of Windsor, though that didn't sell.