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RICH HISTORY

Empress’ 198-Carat Sapphire Sells for Jaw-Dropping Price

The gigantic jewel was once worn by the Romanovs.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - NOVEMBER 05: A Cartier Highly Impressive and Historically Significant Sapphire, Rock Crystal and Diamond Bracelet lot 1080 (Estimate 850,000 – 1,700,000 CHF) is displayed during the Sotheby's Geneva Luxury Week press preview on November 05, 2026 in Geneva, Switzerland. Sotheby’s today unveiled highlights from its seasonal Geneva Important Watches, High Jewelry and Royal & Noble Jewels sales at Geneva’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Highlights include the High Jewelry top lot, Lot 644, an 8.63-carat Fancy Intense Pink diamond, estimated at CHF 3.3-5 million / $4-6 million, and Lot 643, a Graff Fancy Deep Blue Diamond Ring, estimated at CHF 1.7-2.5 million. The High Jewelry sale features over 140 lots, including Cartier, Bulgari, Boucheron and Harry Winston. The Royal & Noble Jewels sale is led by Lot 1080, the Romanov Sapphire, estimated at CHF 850,000-1,700,000, an unheated 197.80-carat Ceylon sapphire from the Russian Crown Jewels, once mounted by Fabergé and worn by Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. The top lot of Sotheby’s Important Watches sale is Lot 88, “The First 3970,” one of Patek Philippe’s most sought-after neo-vintage references, estimated at CHF 1,000,000-3,000,000. Other highlights include Lot 96, a 1914 A. Lange & Söhne Grande and Petite Sonnerie pocket watch, estimated at CHF 700,000-1,400,000, and Lot 138, one of four known Rolex Ref. 6032 watches, estimated at CHF 700,000-1,400,000. The Important Watches sale will be staged in two sessions, on Sunday, 8 November and Monday, 9 November, both from 10am CET, while the High Jewelry and Royal & Noble Jewels sales will take place on Wednesday, 11 November at 12pm CET and 5pm CET respectively. Online bidding is available worldwide. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for Sotheby's)

Harold Cunningham/Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for Sotheby's

By Evgenia Anastasakos

A rare 197.80-carat sapphire fetched a hefty $4.9 million at auction on Wednesday—more than double its expected value of between $1 million and $2 million. According to Sotheby’s, the giant Ceylon sapphire likely came from the Mughal Empire in South Asia, before entering the Russian Czars’ collection sometime in the 18th Century. The gem was famously worn by Czar Nicholas II’s mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, at the Winter Palace Ball of 1903. Shortly after the Russian Revolution, the Soviets sold the jewel. In 1927, Polish opera singer Ganna Walska acquired it and repeatedly had it remounted into new jewelry designs. According to the Associated Press, the sapphire, now part of a diamond-studded bracelet designed by Cartier in 2015, was bought by an anonymous private collector.

Rare photographs of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna at the 1903 Winter Palace Ball show her adorned with heaps of jewels.

Rare photographs of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna at the 1903 Winter Palace Ball show her adorned with heaps of jewels.

Wikimedia Commons

Read it at The Associated Press

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