Christie's to Sell Dietrich's $4.5m Ruby and Diamond Bracelet
March 20, 23
(IDEX Online) - A ruby and diamond bracelet made by Van Cleef and Arpels for screen icon Marlene Dietrich is to sold by Christie's New York with an estimate of $2.5m to $4.5m.
She bought the high glamor piece in 1937 and wore it in Alfred Hitchcock's 1950 movie Stage Fright and to the Academy Awards ceremony a year later.
It will be auctioned as part of collection owned by philanthropist and interior designer Anne Eisenhower, granddaughter of former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower. She died last year, aged 73.
The bracelet, known as a Jarretière (from the French word for garter) includes cushion-shaped Burmese rubies, rectangular and baguette-cut diamonds, all set in platinum.
Eisenhower bought the piece in 1992 from Dietrich's estate for $990,000.
'Marlene Dietrich's bracelet is so high drama, so Hollywood, the ultimate of everything — the greatest rubies, diamonds, mounting. It's like nothing else you've ever seen," said Lisa Hubbard, Christie's jewelry senior advisor.
A complementary necklace and earrings, which were subsequently commissioned by Eisenhower from Van Cleef & Arpels, are also being sold in the eight-lot Magnificent Jewels of Anne Eisenhower auction on 7 June.