Mysterious 18th century necklace made from 500 diamonds set for auction

London: A mysterious 18th century necklace made from around 500 diamonds, some of which are believed to have been taken from a piece that contributed...

London: A mysterious 18th century necklace made from around 500 diamonds, some of which are believed to have been taken from a piece that contributed to Marie Antoinette's demise, will go on sale in November, Sotheby's said on Monday.

The piece, from a private Asian collection, will go under the hammer in Geneva on November 11, with online bidding opening on the auction house's website on October 25.

The necklace, which is composed of three rows of diamonds finished with a diamond tassel at each end, will make its first public appearance in 50 years on Monday, and is expected to fetch between $1.8 and $2.8 million.

"It's a wonderful find because, normally, jewellery in the 18th century was broken up in order to be repurposed... so to have an intact piece of the Georgian period of this importance, this amount of carats... is absolutely fabulous," Andres White Correal, chairman of the Sotheby's jewelry department, told AFP.

"The jewel has passed from families to families. We can start at the early 20th century when it was part of the collection of the Marquesses of Anglesey," he added.