Jewelry Icon: Elizabeth Taylor RIP

Hollywood has lost a beautiful, talented actress…the jewelry world has lost a beautiful, giving collector. Elizabeth Taylor had one of the most prized jewelry collections–with famous jewels, historical jewels, and jewelry designed by the world’s greatest. With the passing of Liz Taylor, it makes me sad that I never got to meet her and talk jewelry with her. But I will definitely be reading her book My Love Affair with Jewelry by the end of this year!

Just some of the jewelry she owned:

• 69.4-carat pear-shaped, internally flawless diamond, the Taylor-Burton Diamond 
• Grand Duchess Vladimir Suite
• the Krupp Diamond
• La Peregrina Pearl
• pieces designed by Boucheron, Bulgari, Cartier, Chopard, Gerard, Harry Winston, JAR, Ruser, Schlumberger, Tiffany, Van Cleef & Arpels, and David Webb

In her book, she gives a glimpse into her collection.  This excerpt rings true for how she wants to leave her legacy and collection:

“As I look at some of my jewels I realize what a very lucky girl I am. Sometimes I wonder what will become of everything, because just like the Duchess of Windsor’s collection, they will all be up for auction one day. They will be scattered to the four corners of the world, and I hope that whoever buys each piece loves it as much as I do and takes care of it and realizes that having jewelry is a temporary gift. In truth, we ‘owners’ are just the caretakers. Nobody owns beautiful paintings. Nobody ever owns anything this beautiful. We are only the guardians.”