Lollobrigida’s jewels set Sotheby’s record

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A pair of natural pearl and diamond pendant earrings from the collection of jewels owned by Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, who acted in Hollywood films too, was sold in Geneva on Tuesday by Sotheby’s auction house for a record price of $2,391,321.
The auction comes just a year after Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor’s legendary collections of jewellery, haute couture dresses, art and memorabilia were sold in a series of auctions in New York and London for $183.5 million by Christie’s. Jewellery collections of actresses Ava Gardner and Marlene Dietrich, singer Maria Callas, Mary Pickford and Paulette Goddard have also been auctioned by Sotheby’s previously. In fact, the Lollobrigida earrings beat the auction figure of $1,986,500 set by Elizabeth Taylor’s pearl earrings in December 2011.
The pair of earrings, owned by Lollobrigida and made in 1964, had been estimated to sell for between $600,000 and $1million. The earrings attracted eight bidders before the winning bid was made by an anonymous person in the sale room. A 74.53 carat cushion shaped fancy yellow diamond, formerly in the collection of the Persian Shah, Ahmed Shah Qajar, was sold as part of the same sale in Geneva for $2,985,750, creating an auction record for a fancy yellow diamond and a record price per carat for a fancy yellow diamond ($40,061 per carat).
A 1954 diamond necklace-bracelet combination, which Lollobrigida wore as a tiara, was estimated to sell for $300,000 -$500,000, but was sold for $783,851.
The Lollobrigida collection of 23 jewellery pieces, all made by Bulgari between the 1950s and 1960s, was sold for a combined total of $4,962,122 beating the pre-sale estimate of $1.9-3.2 million.
85-year-old Lollobrigida, who became a photojournalist after her film career, is a sculptor at present. She has also made three documentaries on Fidel Castro (1974), on Indira Gandhi (1976) and Philippines (1976). “Jewels are meant to give pleasure and for many years I had enormous pleasure wearing mine. Many people tried to persuade me to sell them, but for a very long time I was unwilling. What changed, was seeing a little girl called Sofia suffering from a disorder, which could only be helped by stem cell treatmentwhich she is unable to receive in Italy. Selling my jewels to help raise awareness of stem cell therapy, seems to me a wonderful use to which to put them,” said Lollobrigida.