The biggest pear shaped colorless diamond, the Winston Legacy was auctioned off by Christie’s in Geneva. It was sold for approximately 147 crore, setting a record price. The 101.73 carat sparkler was the centerpiece of their Magnificent Jewels auction, which also boasted of other exquisite pearls and sapphires. There were 257 lots in total, which fetched a collective sum of $102 million (Rs 557 Crore). It was fetched from the famous American jewellery firm, Harry Winston.
The Cannes Film Festival in the past couple of years has registered a growing presence of Indian celebs. Here is a glimpse of the desi celebs at the famous festival. Amitabh Bacchan is staple there and this year he is there to promote his film The Great Gatsby with Leonardo Di Caprio. A new face this year is Vidya Balan who has opted to go for a traditional and classy look, courtesy her designer friend Sabyasachi. Frieda Pinto and Sonam Kapoor were there as L’Oreal faces and were both looking very lovely. While Frieda chose a Western look, Sonam tried out a more ethnic look this year.
Gina Lollabrigida made men swoon in the 50s and 60s. The Italian actress recently decided to sell some of her jewels to help raise awareness for stem cell therapy. The auction by Sotheby’s held in Geneva raised almost ₣4.74 million (Rs 27 crore approx) and set their record for pearl earrings by fetching ₣2.29 million francs (Rs 13 crore approx). Her earrings sold the previous record of another iconic actress, Elizabeth Taylor, whose Bulgari natural pearl and diamond earrings went under the hammer for $1.98 million (Rs 11 crore approx) in 2011. Her other jewels in the auction included a Bulgari necklace and bracelet set and a Bulgari ring. They all fetched ₣749,000 francs (Rs 4.2 crore approx) each. Another highlight of the Sotheby’s auction was the 19th century 74.53-carat fancy yellow diamond, which belonged to the Imperial Majesty Sultan Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty in Persia. It raked in â‚£2.85 million (Rs 16 crore approx) setting another record for the auction house.
Leonardo Di Caprio has had a busy couple of days. The star of The Great Gatsby, recently organised the 11th Hour Auction in collaboration with Christie’s to raise money for the protection of endangered wildlife species. 33 works of art were donated by artists and managed to raise an impressive $31.74 million. The artists include Andreas Gursky, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Peyton among others. Leonardo has been involved in environmental causes since 1988.
The Happy Sport series is one of the most popular lines in the repertoire of Chopard. This line is inspired by their Happy Diamond series, which was created by Karin Scheufele way back in the 1970s and ever since then has been spellbinding everyone. This line of watches for women incorporates the strength of steel and the luxury of diamonds in a marriage of beauty and sophistication. These watches reflect Chopard’s ability to cater to the growing tastes of the contemporary woman who is stylish and confident, and not afraid to stand out. The Happy Sport line was designed by Caroline Scheufele, the Artistic Director and Co-President of Chopard and her brother Karl Friedrich.
