What Happened to Marie Antoinette’s Jewels? Diamonds, Pearls and the Necklace That Launched a Revolution

Marie Antoinette was known — and eventually beheaded — for her lavish spending. The last Queen of France and her husband, King Louis XVI met their untimely ends after squandering their vast fortune as their subjects starved. The Queen’s annual clothing budget surpassed $3 million, according to journalist Laurence Benaim, author of “Fashion and Versailles.” Marie Antoinette’s expenditures naturally extended to accessories, including jewelry. Ahead, see where the ill-fated royal’s precious gems ended up after the French Revolution. The Affair of the Diamond Necklace A reproduction of “the Queen’s necklace.” In 1772, King Louis XV commissioned a diamond necklace from Parisian jewelers Charles Auguste Boehmer and Paul Bassenge. Estimated to cost 2 million livres, the necklace was intended to be a gift to his mistress, Madame du Barry. The King died of smallpox before the piece could be completed. The jewelers attempted to sell the necklace to Marie Antoinette, but she turned down the offer. Boehmer and Bassenge, in need of a buyer, got in contact with a noblewoman and con artist, Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, also known as Countess de la Motte. Posing as the Queen, she wrote several letters to a bishop and former ambassador, Cardinal de Rohan, convincing him to pay for the necklace

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