Jewels Created for Princess Diana Going up for Auction in New York

A diamond and South Sea pearl necklace and pair of matching earrings created for the late Princess Diana—and worn by her just once, at a 1997 English National Ballet performance—will go up for auction in June and could fetch as much as US$15 million.

The auction will take place not long after the coronation of Diana’s ex-husband, Charles, who will become king in a ceremony on Saturday at Westminster Abbey in London.

The necklace has clusters of pearls and 178 diamonds. Courtesy of Guernsey’s

New York-based auctioneers Guernsey’s will oversee the sale at Manhattan’s Pierre Hotel on June 27, according to a news release. The jewels were speculated to have been commissioned by Dodi Fayed, Diana’s paramour, before the couple perished in an August 1997 car crash, a Guernsey spokesperson said.

Along with its clusters of pearls and 178 diamonds, the necklace is significant because of Diana’s mystique—and the scarcity of her possessions on the market, according to Arlan Ettinger, president and founder of Guernsey’s.

“This is the only major jewellery of Diana’s that will ever be sold,” Ettinger says. “The family is not about to start parting with treasured items from their late mother.”

The prized jewels are being sold by Mark Ginzburg, a Ukrainian real-estate developer who bought them in 2009 at Guernsey’s and now is being forced to sell because of the war against Russia

Guernsey’s declined to disclose how much Ginzburg for the set.

One report, however, said Ginzburg paid US$632,000, which Penta couldn’t independently confirm.

“The family’s success in Ukraine enabled them to buy the jewels, but their business has been largely devastated by the war,” Ettinger says. “This is a motivated sale.”

The Crown Jeweller, which has created baubles for the Royal Family for centuries and at the time was the venerable British jeweler Garrard, designed the necklace for Diana after meeting with her in early 1997, according to Guernsey’s. Two years after Diana’s death, her family authorised the Crown Jeweller to sell the necklace.

Diana “didn’t have much in the way of jewelry while she was princess,” Ettinger says. “Most of what she wore was jewellery owned by the crown, given for an occasion, but not permanently.” Once Diana divorced then-Prince Charles, “she emerged as her own woman, and the fact that the Crown Jeweller created this for her is a big deal.”

Once the necklace was completed, Diana wore it to a June 3, 1997, premiere of Swan Lake by the English National Ballet. She returned the necklace to the jeweller after the ballet so he could complete a set of matching earrings, although Diana never had a chance to wear them, Guernsey said.

“It has been said that the Princess of Wales—who was also England’s Patron of Dance—was photographed more often on that occasion than at any other time of her life, with the exception of her wedding day,” according to Guernsey’s.

Next month’s sale will mark the third time the necklace has changed hands. Ettinger handled the first sale in 1999; the buyer was Houston furniture magnate James McIngvale. Ten years later, McIngvale put the necklace up for auction with Ettinger and Guernsey’s, which is when Ginzburg bought it.

The diamonds and pearls on their own “are intrinsically worth at least US$1 million to US$1.5 million,” Ettinger says. “But what they’re worth on the market is hard to predict.”

He estimated the necklace may sell for anywhere from US$5 million to US$15 million, though there was no official range provided by the auction house.

“This is connected to someone who was one of the most admired and accomplished women in the world,” Ettinger says.

Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu delivered a warning to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a recent visit to Washington: Already-high airfares will surge if the war in Iran doesn’t end soon.

Sununu, a Republican who represents some of the biggest airlines as president of the industry group Airlines for America, has for weeks sounded the alarm to Trump administration officials about the economic fallout from high jet fuel prices. The war, Sununu has argued, must come to a close soon, or things will get worse.

Administration officials have gotten the message.

Privately, President Trump’s advisers are increasingly worried that Republicans will pay a political price for the rising fuel costs, according to people familiar with the matter. Many of those advisers are eager to end the war, hoping prices will begin to moderate before November’s midterm elections.

The fallout from the U.S.-Israeli attack in late February has slowed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane, triggering a sharp increase in oil, gasoline and jet-fuel prices.

That means consumers are grappling with high costs ahead of the summer travel season, as they consider vacation plans.

Sixty-three per cent of Americans said they put a great deal or a good amount of blame on Trump for the increase in gas prices, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, PBS and Marist.

More than 8 in 10 Americans said struggles at the gas pump are putting strain on their finances.

Jet-fuel prices roughly doubled in a matter of weeks after the war began, and they have remained high. Airlines have said that will add billions of dollars of additional expenses this year, squeezing profit margins.

U.S. airlines spent more than $5 billion on fuel in March—up 30% from a year earlier, according to government data.

Carriers have been raising ticket prices, hoping to pass the cost along to consumers, and they are culling flights that will no longer make money at higher price levels.

In March, the price of a U.S. domestic round-trip economy ticket rose 21% from a year earlier to $570, according to Airlines Reporting Corp., which tracks travel-agency sales.

So far, airlines have said the higher fares haven’t deterred bookings and they are hoping to recoup more of the fuel-cost increases as the year goes on.

Earlier this week, Trump said the current price of oil is “a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that if Iran got a nuclear weapon, the country would have more leverage to keep the strait closed and “make our gas prices like $9 a gallon or $8 a gallon.”

Trump has taken steps in recent days to bring the war to an end. Late Tuesday, the president paused a plan to help guide trapped commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, expressing optimism that a deal could be reached with Iran to end the conflict.

Crude oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Wednesday, after reports that Iran and the U.S. are working with mediators on a one-page framework to restart negotiations aimed at ending the conflict and opening the strait.

Sununu said Trump administration officials are conscious of the economic fallout from the war: “They get it…and I think that’s why they’re trying to get through the war as fast as they can.”

But he cautioned that it could take months for prices to return to prewar levels.

“Ticket prices won’t go down immediately” after the strait is fully reopened, Sununu said. “You’re looking at elevated ticket prices through the summer and fall because it takes a while for the prices to go down.”

Since the initial U.S.-Israeli attack in late February, Sununu has met in Washington with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, representatives from the Transportation Department and senior White House officials.

A White House official confirmed that Hassett and Sununu have discussed the effect of increased fuel prices on the airline industry. The official said the conversation touched on how the industry can mitigate the impact of high jet fuel prices on consumers.

“The president and his entire energy team anticipated these short-term disruptions to the global energy markets from Operation Epic Fury and had a plan prepared to mitigate these disruptions,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said, pointing to the administration’s decision to waive a century-old shipping law in a bid to lower the cost of moving oil.

Rogers said the administration is working with industry representatives to “address their concerns, explore potential actions, and inform the president’s policy decisions.”

A Treasury Department spokesman pointed to Bessent’s recent comments on Fox News that the U.S. economy remains strong despite price increases. The spokesman said Treasury officials have met with airline executives, who have reaffirmed strong ticket bookings.

“We’re cognizant that this short-term move up in prices is affecting the American people, but I am also confident, on the other side of this, prices will come down very quickly,” Bessent told Fox News on Monday.

The war has already contributed to one casualty in the industry: Spirit Airlines. Company representatives have said they were forced to close the airline because the sustained surge in jet-fuel prices derailed the company’s plan to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Trump administration and Spirit failed to come to an agreement for the company to receive a financial lifeline of as much as $500 million from the federal government.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has argued that the Iran war wasn’t the cause of Spirit’s demise, pointing to the company’s past financial struggles, as well as the Biden administration’s decision to challenge a merger with JetBlue.

Other budget airlines have also turned to the federal government for help since the U.S.-Israeli attack. A group of budget airlines last month sought $2.5 billion in financial assistance to offset higher fuel costs, and they separately wrote to lawmakers asking for relief from certain ticket taxes.

Jewels Created for Princess Diana Going up for Auction in New York

Administration officials have spoken to the airline industry, which has voiced concerns about the rising costs.