The late great actress Elizabeth Taylor's expansive jewelry collection surpassed measly expectations during its auctioning at Christies when it sold for $115,932,000.
A salesroom full of one-percenters made it rain at Christie’s last night during the first wave of the “Collection of Elizabeth Taylor” sales, fetching $115,932,000, wildly over pre-sale expectations of $16-23 million. All of the 80 lots offered sold, translating to what the auction world calls “a white-glove sale,” that rare event free of any market casualties. The auction also ranks as the most expensive single-session jewelry sale ever, as well as a record for a single-owner sale of jewelry.[Artinfo]
Twenty-four of the 80 pieces of jewelry that were either obsessively collected by the screen legend, who died in March at the age of 79, or presented to her in earlier times as blingy tokens of Hollywood-style affection by a roster of famous or at least rich men, hurdled the million-dollar mark. Of those high-flying ornaments, six went over $5 million, setting at least three records along the way.
