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The Elizabeth Taylor Auctions: What the Stars Bought
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Her jewelry auction shattered records with nearly $116 million in sales, but who actually came to Christie’s New York and purchased the pricey gems Elizabeth Taylor once owned?
Taylor admirer Kim Kardashian scored three Lorraine Schwartz bangles, shelling out $64,900 for the jade bracelets. “It’s not just a piece of jewelry,” she told InStyle.com. “She wore them constantly during the final years of her life and I believe they carry her spirit.”
Coincidentally, Schwartz herself scooped up a diamond fringe bracelet Taylor purchased from her nearly 10 years ago. “I was wearing it for her [70th birthday] party at the Bel-Air Hotel,” Schwartz recalled on her Facebook page, “and she kept calling me over to look at it and to try it on.” The next morning, the jeweler got a call from the movie star, who said, “I know who’s buying that bracelet for my birthday … I’m buying it!”
Schwartz also won a pair of earrings Taylor’s third husband, Michael Todd, created just for her. “The earrings were once made from paste, but she loved them so much that Michael Todd surprised her and made them real,” Schwartz wrote. “During the auction I could feel her saying to me, ‘Buy them, they’re my favorite.’ I feel like I have a part of her with me forever.”
Some of Taylor’s larger baubles ended up selling to companies. The 33.19-carat Krupp Diamond (above), a gift from Richard Burton, reportedly went for $8.8 million to Daniel Pang, a representative of Korean hotel conglomerate E-Land, which plans to display the treasure at its E-World theme park in Daegu, according to the AFP. The heart-shaped Taj Mahal diamond went to a private buyer for $8.8 million, as well. And according to the New York Post, Bulgari anonymously bought back a staggering $20 million worth of jewels, including a 52.72-carat sapphire-and-diamond sautoir for $5.9 million and an emerald-and-diamond necklace for $6.1 million.
The auction drew quite the stylish crowd, too; Michael Kors, Nina Garcia and Jennifer Tilly were spotted at Christie’s Tuesday evening, and Sofia Coppola, Anna Sui and Jill Zarin perused the Haute Couture sales on Wednesday and Thursday.
Following Wednesday’s couture sale, supermodel Coco Rocha walked away with Taylor’s yellow-and-pink 1980s Givenchy jumpsuit. “I was amazed that I actually won,” she told Style.com on the way out. “Everyone has been asking what I am going to do with it — I am going to wear it. Right now, I’m thinking next year’s Costume Institute Ball would be perfect.”
–Kate Hogan, with reporting by K.C. Baker and Liz McNeil
