Princess Diana's 'Swan Lake' necklace auction is called off after it's privately sold to a 'prominent museum'
A necklace worn by Princess Diana at one of her last public appearances has officially changed ownership.
On the day the "The Swan Lake Suite" was to go to auction via Guernsey’s auction house in New York City, the business announced on its website that the set "has been privately sold to a prominent museum. Accordingly, our auction of the beautiful jewels has been canceled."
Yahoo Entertainment confirmed the private sale with Guernsey’s, but there's no further statement yet as the particulars about what can be shared are still being worked out.
The set includes a necklace boasting 178 diamonds and five South Sea pearls that King Charles's first wife wore to a performance of the ballet Swan Lake in London on June 3, 1997, a year after the couple's divorce. A pair of earrings was later added, but Diana died — on August 31, 1997 — before she could wear them.
Diana's night out in the necklace: "It is said that she was photographed more on that evening than at any other time except her wedding," Arlan Ettinger from Guernsey’s told the New York Times in May when the auction was first announced.
It was one year after her divorce from Charles, but five since they separated, and the mom of Princes William and Harry had reinvented herself in many ways, particularly with her style. For the gala opening of Great Britain’s ballet season, at the famed Royal Albert Hall, she wore a hand-beaded light blue Jacques Azagury dress with bows on the straps. The necklace was a statement piece and really stood out as Diana — then-England’s Patron of Dance — arrived and later met the dancers.
Rare gems for the royal: “Diana, by every account, really didn’t own any jewelry when she was princess,” Ettinger told the same outlet. "When she went out for the evening, if it was a royal occasion she attended, she would be wearing jewelry loaned to her by the crown." After her divorce, she designed the set in collaboration with the royal family's crown jewelry David Thomas, who was also president of the jewelry company Garrard.
"Diana was a girl when she was a princess,” Ettinger told WWD. “She was wearing borrowed material, then she blossomed into a tower of strength and became very much her own, so designing a necklace was a statement for her."
Ettinger said that the set was intended to be a gift to Diana from her then-boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, who was the Harrods heir.
Why the necklace didn't go to William or Harry: Within days of Diana dazzling in the necklace, the crown jeweler asked Diana to send the necklace back because he "hadn’t finished the earrings,” according to Ettinger, and needed the necklace to ensure it was "a perfect match." The earrings were worked on that summer, featuring many more diamonds and pearls, but she and Fayed died in a Paris car crash (along with the driver, Henri Paul) before she was presented with the full suite.
Because the jewelry wasn't yet paid for, the jeweler and Diana’s family came to an agreement that the set would be privately sold.
Who has owned them? The initial buyer was a Garrard's customer, described by the NYT as a British lord and managing director in the London office of former financial services firm Lehman Brothers. He went to the jewelry store to pick up something he had repaired and also left with the set. However, his wife realized she would never wear them because the tragedy of Diana’s death was "too fresh." So Guernsey’s was contacted in 1999 to auction the gems. The set went on a press tour — Katie Couric reportedly wore the necklace on the Today show — and then sold for $525,000 to a Houston furniture magnate known as "Mattress Mack" (real name Jim McIngvale). A portion of the proceeds went to UNICEF, in support of its efforts to ban landmines, which was a cause long supported by Diana. The set was sold again in 2010 to Mark Ginzburg, a Ukrainian real estate developer, for $632,000. A sale was explored in 2017, with a reported selling price of $12 million, but it apparently didn't happen. Ginzburg is selling now — with a portion of the proceeds going to the re-building of Ukraine.
Who is the new owner — and what was the selling price? When the auction was announced in May, Ettinger estimated the set would bring in between $5 million to $15 million. And while there was probably lots of interest — including Diana fan Kim Kardashian, who bought the late princess's Attallah Cross pendant in January — this unidentified "prominent museum" apparently won out resulting in the last-minute cancellation of the auction.
Expect some more details to come on the private sale.
However, there's a small consolation for any bummed out bidders. Just this week it was announced that there's another Diana-related item going up for auction. It's a red sweater with dozens of white sheep — and one black one — that she famously wore in 1981 after her engagement to Charles. Bids will be taken, via Sotheby's, from Aug. 31 to Sept. 14, and that's expected to pull in a much smaller (but still expensive) $80,000.
