ROYAL FAMILY
How much did Princess Diana’s personal belongings make at auction?
A total of 50 lots went under the hammer in Los Angeles on Thursday, including a Victor Edelstein evening dress which fetched just under a million dollars.
The largest collection of Princess Diana’s most famous and photographed evening wear, suits, shoes, handbags and accessories to go up for auction since the historic June 1997 auction at Christie’s, fetched $5.5 million in Los Angeles on Thursday, exceeding all expectations.
Auction house Julien’s organized Princess Diana’s Elegance & A Royal Collection - a total of 50 lots of items that belonged to the late royal went under the hammer in Gardena, California, including some of her most. iconic dresses.
Which item was the top seller at Julien’s Princess Diana auction?
A Victor Edelstein lace evening dress which Diana was photographed wearing in London on January 25th and in Hamburg on November 6, 1987 was expected to fetch $200,000-$400,000 but went for over double the top end estimate. It sold for $910,000, making it the best seller during the three-hour auction.
It was billed as the most extensive collection of Diana’s personal belongings since she donated 79 cocktail and evening dresses for a charity auction in Manhattan just a couple of months before her untimely death in Paris.
A Catherine Walker two-piece yellow and navy skirt suit which Diana wore during a trip to Hong Kong in November 1989 and on other occasions also performed better than expected. It was tipped to fetch $30,000-$50,000 but sold for $325,000.
One of the many other items that topped its estimate was Lot 5: a Murray Arbeid midnight blue tulle strapless gown embellished with diamante stars. Diana was photographed wearing it several time - first in October 1986 when she attended The Phantom Of The Opera premiere at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London; and to a dinner with King Constantine of Greece at Claridge’s in July of that year and to a ballet performance of Cinderella at the Royal Opera House on 17 December 1987.
Diana’s personal handwritten letters exceed estimates
The gown has a pre-auction estimate of $200,000 - $400,000 but made $780,000. Other items sold for many times their original estimate, including a Rayne violet leather semi-circle clutch, which Diana took with her on an official royal trip to Hong Kong in 1989. A more accessible item with an estimate of $2,000 - $4,000, the bag was valued at $88,900 when the gavel struck.
Not all of the items being auctioned were personal items of clothing - there were also 20 handwritten letters, notes and personal postcards sent by Diana, many of them to her former housekeeper in Northamptonshire, Maud Pendrey. All them were sold for figures beyond their top estimate - a three-page handwritten letter to Mrs Pendrey in late July 1984 when Diana was heavily pregnant with her second son Harry, sold for almost 15 times its estimate at $44,450.
A portion of the proceeds from the auction will be destined to various charities including Muscular Dystrophy UK. The world record for a dress worn by a royal at auction was set when a Jacques Azagury-designed velvet evening gown with padded shoulders and drop waistline, worn by Diana during a visit to Florence, Italy in 1985, sold for for $1,148,080 at the same Hollywood auction house in December last year.