31. Elizabeth Taylor’s Diamond Necklace
Designer: Cartier
Event: 1970 Oscars
Worth: $1.1 million*
It’s rare to see a jewel get renamed after a famous wearer, but Elizabeth Taylor’s diamond necklace was such a sensation at the 1970 Oscars that it would later be named after her. Titled the Taylor-Burton Diamond, this sparkler weighed sixty-eight carats. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor purchased the diamond at auction in 1969 for $1.5 million.
Elizabeth Taylor’s Diamond Necklace ©Fotos International / Gettyimages.com
They bought it from Cartier, and the incredible, pear-shaped stone’s sale set a record for the most-expensive publicly-sold jewel in history. The original owner of the Taylor-Burton diamond, after it was founded in the Premier Mine in 1966, was Harriet Annenberg Ames, a New York City socialite who got rid of the jewel because she was worried to walk around town with it, for fear of getting robbed.