Check out the dazzling diamond necklace with possible ties to Marie Antoinette that just sold for $4.8 million

A diamond necklace with a possible link to Marie Antoinettethe last queen from France, sold at auction for $4.8 million.

The glittering 300-carat necklace is loaded with gemstones that may have contributed to the 18th-century queen’s downfall. It has also been worn at two British coronations.

Experts from Sotheby’s, the auction house that sold the necklace, say some of the sparkling stones may have contributed to a royal scandal known as the “Affair of the Diamond Necklace.”

The 1785 incident involved a noblewoman named Jeanne de la Motte, who the newspaper described as a “confidante deceiver.” Palace of Versailles. She posed as Marie Antoinette and then disappeared with a lavish 2,800-carat necklace made of nearly 650 diamonds.

Marie Antoinette was acquitted by the court, but her reputation was still damaged. The trial “did little to diminish her growing fame for her extravagance, which fueled the revolution and the overthrow of the French monarch,” writes ReutersCecile Mantovani.

Marie Antoinette was executed eight years later, after the execution of her husband, Louis XVI.

The diamonds from the scandalous piece of jewelery were sold, with a jeweler buying 350 of them for $12,700 (£10,000). ArtnetVerity Babbs reports this.

According to Sotheby’s, some diamonds may have been incorporated into the recently auctioned necklace.

At the very least, the necklace “could only have been made for royalty or a high-ranking aristocrat at one of the glittering courts of the old regime – most likely the French or English court,” the auction house said.

It contains 500 diamonds believed to have come from India’s Golconda mines. The necklace, which comes from the Georgian era, is made of three long parallel strands with a diamond tassel at each end. It can be worn open at the neck, or with the threads crossed like a scarf.

“It is a masterpiece of the Georgian era and a masterclass in design, craftsmanship and technical innovation for that period,” said Andres White Correal, a jewelry expert at Sotheby’s, in a catalog note. “Today it is as relevant, attractive and appealing as it was when it was created more than 200 years ago.”

The chain was once owned by the Pagets, a British aristocratic family with close ties to the British royal family. Marjorie Paget, the Marchioness of Anglesey, wore the necklace at the coronation of George VI in 1937. Her daughter-in-law also wore the necklace at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.

Sometime in the 1960s the family sold or gave away the necklace. In 1976 it was included in an exhibition in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

At the “Royal and noble jewels” auction in Geneva on November 13, the chain sparked a lengthy bidding war. An unnamed buyer ultimately won.

“The customer who bought it is ecstatic,” said White Correal, per France24by Oliver Farry. “She was ready to fight, and she did. … [The necklace] will be worn and much loved.”

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