Barkin auctions off jewel collection to raise €16m

ACTRESS Ellen Barkin has auctioned off the jewels given to her by billionaire ex-husband Ron Perelman for more than $20 million.

The Sea of Love star put the gems up for sale at Christie’s in New York — including her wedding band — nine months after she was served with divorce papers by the Revlon tycoon.

Ms Barkin said she would never wear the glittering gifts Perelman had showered her with during their five-year marriage again, and could not think about them without thinking about him.

They ranged from a Cartier watch he presented her with as a birthday present two weeks after they met in 1999 to an apricot diamond ring that he gave her just a month before their abrupt split.

“I was an accessory, being accessorised,” the actress, who is reported to have got a $20m (€15.9m), divorce settlement, has said since the break-up.

Last night, one piece alone out of the 103 on sale, an oval-cut, 22.76-carat diamond ring by jeweller JAR sold for $1.8m (€1.4m).

It had been estimated at $800,000 to $1.2m.

Two other pieces went for more than a million dollars in a sale that had been estimated would raise around $15 million but ended up at $20.39m (€16.25m).

Christie’s said the “sensational” result made Ms Barkin’s collection the highest earning single-owner jewellery sale of the past 15 years in the US, and among the top four yet worldwide.

Ms Barkin, who is currently filming Ocean’s Thirteen with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, told Vogue earlier this year: “As exquisite as the collection is, they’re just not memories I want to wear out every day.

“I’ll take a break from the jewelled-trophy-wife look.”