Taylor’s royal collection of jewels to go under the hammer

ELIZABETH TAYLOR dazzled the world with her luminous beauty, lavish lifestyle — and an unquenchable passion for diamonds and jewels that was fuelled by the great loves of her life.

The late Hollywood star amassed one of the foremost jewellery collections in the world, including a 33.19-carat diamond ring and a 16th-century pear-shaped pearl from one of her seven husbands, Richard Burton.

Christie’s auction house is selling her complete jewellery collection, valued at $30 million (€21.3m), in New York on December 13-14.

“These are the top jewels that Elizabeth Taylor received from the great loves of her life, Mike Todd and Richard Burton,” said Christie’s jewellery expert Rahul Kadakia. “They’re from moments in life that were very dear to her,” jewels that were bought in Bulgari in Rome, at Cartier in New York and at auction.

The stories behind them are as priceless as the gems themselves. In a 2002 memoir, My Love Affair With Jewellery, Taylor took readers on a personal journey of her collection, describing in her own words how she came to own each piece.

“I never, never thought of my jewellery as trophies,” she wrote. “I’m here to take care of them and to love them ... “When I die and they go off to auction I hope whoever buys them gives them a really good home.”

Among the standouts is the 16th-century La Peregrina, one of the largest and most symmetrically perfect pear-shaped pearls in the world, which Burton purchased for Taylor in 1969 as a Valentine’s Day gift.

The two had met in Italy on the set of the 1963 film Cleopatra, and married for the first time in 1964.

Once part of the crown jewels of Spain, the pearl later passed into the hands of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon III and the Duke of Abercorn.

When it came up at auction in New York, Burton snapped it up for $37,000, beating out the underbidder, a member of the Spanish royal family.

Cartier later created a ruby and diamond necklace from which the pearl was suspended, a design that was inspired by the famous Velazquez portraits of Spain’s Queen Margarita and Queen Isabel wearing the pearl as a necklace.

It is estimated to fetch $2m to $3m.