Auctions

Marie Antoinette's pink diamond breaks all records, sold for 14 million

The gem was sold at Christie's in New York for $14 million. It is a 10.38 carat pink diamond, kite-cut, wrapped in a regal fleur-de-lys setting

28 June 2025

2' min read

The pink diamond that belonged to the Bourbon dynasty has enchanted the glittering world of international auctions, shattering all records at Christie's in New York in recent days with an impressive $14 million hammer blow.

The star? A fabulous 10.38-carat pink diamond, cut in the shape of a kite, wrapped in a regal fleur-de-lys setting, the emblem of French royalty. Renamed "Marie-Thérèse Pink Diamond", it carries in its name the weight of centuries of court intrigue, dynastic marriages and failed escapes.

By a series of suggestive coincidences, some media recalled that the tycoon Jeff Bezos gave his wife Lauren Sanchez an extremely rare pink diamond as a wedding gift.

The Legend

According to legend (and the auction catalogue), it was Queen Marie-Antoinette herself who handed over her valuables to the affectionate hairdresser Léonard Autié, as she prepared her ill-fated escape from Paris during the French Revolution. Among those jewels rescued from the chaos, one passed to her surviving daughter, Marie-Thérèse of France. The princess, married to the Duke of Angoulême, then passed it on to her niece Marie-Thérèse de Chambord, who in turn gave it to Queen Marie-Thérèse of Bavaria as a wedding gift. After more than a century in European royal collections, the diamond was first sold in 1996 by Sotheby's in Geneva. At the time, it was set in a hair brooch kept in a velvet box bearing the seal of Empress Elisabeth of Austria's court jeweller, A. E. Köchert.

Further embellishing the diamond epic is the intervention of Joel Arthur Rosenthal, the legendary (and almost mythical) jeweller known as JAR. His is the restyling of the diamond into a dream ring: a diamond crown in the shape of a lily, as sumptuous as it is symbolic. If ever there was a throne for a finger, this would be its sceptre.

The Mines of Golconda

"A miracle of nature and a living witness to European history," Rahul Kadakia, head of Christie's jewellery section, enthusiastically declared. As if the royal kinship were not enough, experts suspect that the diamond may have come from the legendary Golconda mines in India. A name that makes connoisseurs shiver: it is there that mythical stones such as the Koh-i-Noor and the Regent diamond were born. It is not just a gem, it is poetic geography.