To Hell With The Baubles From Her Neck, But If You Have The Blade Which Severed It

[Wiley50]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7148727,00.html

Marie Antoinette's Pearls Fail to Sell


Thursday December 13, 2007 2:31 AM

LONDON (AP) - A set of pearls purportedly belonging to Marie Antoinette failed to sell Wednesday, a disappointing outcome for the centerpiece of a ``Magnificent Jewels'' sale at Christie's auction house.

The pearls, which the French queen is said to have given to a British countess for safekeeping after she was imprisoned during the French Revolution, are now part of a necklace also containing rubies and diamonds.

Christie's had hoped the pearls would fetch up to $815,000.

The pearls were given to Elizabeth Leveson-Gower - the wife of the British ambassador to France and the Countess of Sutherland - and were intended to help Marie Antoinette if she managed to flee the country, Christie's said.

However, the former queen never saw the jewels again and was executed by the guillotine in 1793.

The pearls were made into a necklace when Lady Elizabeth's grandson married in 1849 and have remained in the Leveson-Gower family for more than 200 years.

[alfredo]

1. Barbara Bush would want them.

[AlCzervik]

2. or Judy.

[Forkboy]

3. In the day and age where people are buying grilled cheese Jesus' this amazes me.

[catnhatnh]

4. Hmm...After 200 years of "Safekeeping"....

you would have thought that a family of so high a moral character as English gentry would have either returned the jewels to members of the owners family or to the people of France....instead they vandalized a historic artifact and then keep mum until they needed the notoriety of the true owner's name to get an infusion of cash...God Bless western aristocracy....