THE HUTTON-MDIVINI NECKLACE.
The Hutton-Mdivini necklace sold for a whopping US$27.44 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong today. This is a world record for any jadeite jewellery. It was sold to a telephone bidder after an extended bidding battle that lasted 20 minutes. During this time seven bidders placed 40 bids.
With 27 gigantic beads of magnificent green colour, excellent translucency, extremely fine texture and majestic proportions it is the most important piece of jadeite jewellery known. Its provenance spans Western nobility and Imperial China. Sotheby’s confirmed that the necklace was acquired by The Cartier Collection.
It was first sold at auction in 1988 for US$2 million. Six years later in 1994 again in Hong Kong, it made US$4.2 million.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 20 and February 28, 2014).