Marie Antoinette's Diamonds on Display
July 14, 25
(IDEX Online) - Jewelry from the private collection of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, are to be displayed at London's Victoria and Albert Musuem (V&A).
Among the highlights are a natural pearl and diamond pendant sold for $36min 2018 and a double-ribbon bow brooch, both believed to have been smuggled out of France before her execution.
There's also the priceless Sutherland riviere style diamond necklace - 20 large old brilliant-cut diamonds, some of them Type IIa Golconda - linked to Marie Antoinette and the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace scandal.
History has it that King Louis XV commissioned an extravagant diamond necklace for his mistress Madame du Barry in 1772, but died before it was finished.
The Boehmer and Bassenge necklace, named after the Parisian jewelers who made it, was later offered to Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, but she refused it as too ostentatious.
Then in 1785, there was an elaborate fraud aimed at procuring the necklace. Marie Antoinette was not involved, but the public blamed her for the Affair of the Diamond Necklace was innocent, fueling anti-monarchy sentiment before the French Revolution.
The Boehmer and Bassenge diamond necklace was broken up and sold but it is widley believed that some of the diamonds ended up in the Sutherland necklace. A replica of the Boehmer and Bassenge necklace will also be displayed.
The Sutherland diamonds belonged for many years to British aristocracy, and were acquired by the V&A in 2022, in lieu of inheritance tax that should have been paid to the government.
The V&A opens its Marie Antoinette Style exhibition from 20 September to 22 March 2026, at its South Kensington location in London.
It says it is the first UK exhibition solely devoted to Marie Antoinette, and will feature around 250 objects, including exceptional loans never seen before outside the Chateau de Versailles and France.
On display will be exceptionally rare personal items owned and worn by Marie Antoinette including richly embellished fragments of court dress, the Queen's own silk slippers, and jewels from her private collection.
Pix courtesy V&A.