Till lately, Kim Kardashian’s most notable jewellery second could have been that notorious heist in 2016, when armed robbers broke into her Paris resort room, held her up at gunpoint, and carted off with greater than $10 million price of jewels. Then a couple of weeks in the past it was revealed that she had purchased a chunk as soon as worn by Princess Diana—and a model new jewellery narrative was born.
For these proof against the tides of the web, social media, superstar gossip, and something royal household, the gem in query right here is the Attallah Cross, a large diamond and amethyst-studded cross created by Garrard and lent to the late princess, who publicly wore the pendant as soon as, to a charity gala in 1987. Thirty-six years later it resurfaced at Sotheby’s London for its Royal and Noble public sale this month, the place it was estimated to fetch $147,000. Kardashian, through a consultant, made the profitable bid for $197,453.
Princess Diana in 1987, sporting Kim Kardashian’s future cross. Getty Pictures
However as devoted Kardashian acolytes and eager jewellery observers alike already know, this wasn’t Kiki’s first rodeo. She has been down this path earlier than, by which we imply buying the occasional piece of knickknack at public sale from a group with A+++ star provenance.
And all of it started with—who else?—Elizabeth Taylor. When her legendary jewellery assortment got here up for public sale at Christie’s in December 2011, Kardashian—who had interviewed the icon for Harper’s Bazaar earlier that 12 months, only a month earlier than the actress’s demise—was paying shut consideration. She did not go for the showstoppers like La Peregrina (sale worth: a report $11.8 million), or the Bulgari emeralds, or the Schlumberger dolphin. She phoned in to bid on a trio of jade and diamond bangles by Lorraine Schwartz—and took them dwelling for $64,900.
The 2011 gross sales of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewellery at Christie’s realized greater than $183 million. Getty Pictures
“She went in for one thing very private, as a result of she was such good buddies with Lorraine and mentioned she at all times cherished the bangles,” says Marion Fasel, jewellery historian and founding father of The Adventurine, who spoke to the truth star quickly after the public sale. “However she clearly paid rather more cash than she must from Lorraine as a result of she needed that provenance hooked up.”
It could be one other six years earlier than Kardashian picked up her second legendary heirloom. In 2017, Jackie Kennedy’s Cartier Tank watch, which she had acquired as a present from her brother-in-law Stanislas Radziwill in 1963—and which she was seldom seen with out—offered at Christie’s for $379,500. Guess who was the nameless purchaser?
Jackie Kennedy Onassis in 1969. Getty Pictures
Quick ahead one other six years to her Diana second. That the truth star turned mega superstar has solely purchased three items of such caliber over a interval spanning greater than a decade says quite a bit about her jewellery amassing philosophy—and is maybe yet one more testomony to Kardashian’s image-making brilliance. Whereas the sample makes clear that she’s going to solely await gems of probably the most extraordinary provenance, there is a component of—dare we are saying it?—practicality in her selections, too.
Think about the prices of those investments. These are extraordinarily costly purchases for many of the inhabitants, however a lot much less so on this planet of high-profile jewellery auctions, the place it would not take a lot for items to go above the million greenback mark. “It isn’t like she went in and acquired the Marie Antoinette bracelets,” Fasel says, referring to the diamond-laced pair belonging to the doomed French queen that offered in 2021 at Christie’s Geneva for $8.2 million. Price noting given Kardashian, based on the Forbes record, is a billionaire.
Then take Kennedy’s Tank. In accordance with Fasel, Kardashian ultimately resold the watch, although somewhat than flip a revenue by placing it on the open market, she quietly offered it again to the Cartier archives. “I respect that a lot as a jewellery historian,” she says. “And I really like that in some methods she realized she made a mistake with the Jackie Kennedy and she or he wasn’t sentimental about it. She moved on.”
Garrard’s Attallah Cross.
The identical in all probability cannot be mentioned about her newest buy, given the entire household’s unabashed embrace of the non secular motif as of late (see: Kourtney’s marriage ceremony). “To me, the jewel is extra Kim Kardashian than it was Princess Diana,” Fasel says. And it is a signal that she is evolving as a jewellery collector, slowly upping the ante with regards to the kind of internet-breaking, true-to-her-style showstopper she’s going to bid on at public sale, all whereas remaining deliberate about her selections. “The best way that she’s chosen to curate her assortment is good and artistic, specializing in a theme of heirlooms owned by vital ladies,” says jeweler Jill Heller. “She’s now introducing her personal iconic legacy into the equation, making it an much more impactful assortment.”
Whereas it is unattainable to foretell when one other gem worn by a legendary determine will floor at public sale, Fasel says it must besomeone large for Kardashian to note. “She’s not shopping for jewellery,” she says. “She’s shopping for a narrative, a legacy. It is icons just for Kim.”