Elizabeth Taylor, one of the most admired actresses, beauty queens and role models of all time, died in 2011 after a life lived to the full. It was quickly announced thereafter that Christie’s would be auctioning off her personal belongings.
I was always a huge fan of that exquisite beauty with her preference for jewels and wanted the auction catalogue very badly! I do remember writing a polite email to Christie’s asking if it would be possible to get a copy of the catalogue. Back I got a standard reply that an extra website would be ready soon to follow the upcoming auction and that I could also buy the catalogue there. Right, I could have guessed it, I was not the only one interested in Elizabeth Taylors jewels and other worldly goods. In due time the catalogue was announced, ordered and delivered.
Not a small item, but a book slipcase with 5 volumes of images and descriptions of her personal belongings, a general booklet and the auction dates. 2 of the volumes were dedicated alone to her jewels. When it arrived, I was surprised how heavy it was, something like 10 kg. The auction catalogue that I bought in 2011 for the hefty sum of appr. 300$, goes now at amazon for almost 2000€. A classical example for the universal truth that some things one must buy immediately when one has the chance and not look at the price tag.
Regarding the value increase, I have never made a better investment. I would never sell it, of course. It will proudly return to its centre place in my living room where it resided for the last 10 years after I finish this article.
Elizabeth Taylor in her teens, twenties and early thirties was without any doubt one of the most beautiful women that ever walked the earth. She was also a great actress and a very spirited woman, living the life of the rich and famous and not wasting too many thoughts on things gone by. Her great love stories with Mike Todd and Richard Burton were the subject of many books and her life featured in many biographies and some autobiographic books. I think I read at least 15 biographies about her. Old ones, new ones, and also coffee table photo books. There are always new books published about her; just now I ordered a stunning portrait collection of her.
Her exquisite face was always her biggest asset. The violet eyes under perfectly structured eyebrows, the raven black hair and the ideal nose dominate every picture taken of her. The three pictures that accompany this article are all portraits and all showing those features. That is no coincidence. Scroll through books about Elizabeth Taylor and you find way more portraits than when you scroll through any book about any other actress. When she is shown in full, one is surprised how big and dominating her head is compared to her body.
Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe are of the rare kind of human beings we will never lose interest in. No question her private life with seven marriages, personal tragedy, illness, scandal, triumphs and break downs made her the perfect target of daydreams for all those who wanted to escape their own tragedies and troubles. Her life was lived under a magnifying glass and in golden surroundings. Money and fame bring colour to everything. Elizabeth Taylor is no one to be pitied and she would have never asked for it. She knew how privileged she was and she put on a great show for her audience. Everybody has difficult times. Money helps. In good and in bad times.
Elizabeth Taylor had a lot of good times. She was passionately loved by some of her husbands and loved them back the same. Being such a beauty and jewel lover made her the perfect receiver of wonderful presents. At least two of her husbands, Mike Todd and Richard Burton, were very generous with gifts. Of course, she was rich on her own and bought herself what was not given as a present. When movie picture roles dwindled, he wrote books and became a smart entrepreneur in perfumes and accessories. She also had incomes from a Technicolor system Mike Todd had invented.
It was a revelation when she published her own book on her collection in 2002. I remember going to the bookstore and browse through it again and again. Was it 50€ then? I couldn’t afford to buy the book; those were the poor student days. I bought the book second hand (and twice) sometime later for very little money from amazon. One of them has still the stamp of the Queens Public Library inside. Oh, how many hours did I spend dreaming about a life like hers and how much I would like to see jewels fit for a queen at least once in life for real.
Elizabeth Taylor loved her jewels and showed them to the world. She was not afraid and hiding them only in vaults. For sure there have been and are plenty of super rich women who own bigger collections. They don’t make us dream because we never see them. It might be nice for the owners, but that’s it. Elizabeth Taylor saw herself as the caretaker of her famous stones during her lifetime and knew there would be other owners afterwards.
She loved touching them and said herself that sometimes she indulged herself for hours in “playing” with them. I read the story in a book by a young male nanny for her teenage children in the house in Mexico. Superficial? Shallow? Self-absorbed? Well, so what. Other people love their cars or bikes or houses or whatever and take pleasure from owning them.
Of course, in a world where war is becoming a realistic outlook again, one might be quick in giving a pointed verdict. But it is not only family and friendship that gives pleasure in life, we should be honest about it. The more horrible grey and dark the world becomes, the more people crave the little escapes. We are human, after all. There is this movie “The Road” with Viggo Mortensen. A brutal, tough, touching movie of a father and son a postapocalyptic world. They try to find a safe place and live in horrible circumstances. The mother of the child and wife of the father committed suicide after it became clear they would never get back the nice and normal life they lived before the catastrophe. A life without beauty was not worth living for her, even if it meant leaving son and husband and going to a certain death. In the whole film this scene gave me the most shivering, because I could totally understand her and was not sure what I would have done. A far cry from Elizabeth Taylor and her love for life and jewellery and beautiful things in general. Family, friends, pets, life, love, honour, beauty in life – those are all important. It is an individual decision which of these is most important to you.
I was lucky at the end. The auction was announced and the time of the public exhibition in the Rockefeller Centre before the auction. Thanks to a perfect coincidence I was in New York on one day when the exhibition was running. The time schedule was so tight I wasn’t sure I would make it, even with ticket already printed. It was a very narrow affair but I saw the exhibition. A very privileged moment. It stuck me how big these gems really were. It was a wonderful hour feeling the spirit of Elizabeth Taylor.
Most of her jewels were bought back by the designers or jewellery houses, like Bulgari, that had originally made them. Her belongings, also paintings, where sold for almost 140 Mio €.
Even the value of the purest gems can heftily increase when touched by the most beautiful woman on earth.
All rights to the books belong to:
Taylor, Elizabeth: My love affair with Jewelry, 2002, Simon&Schuster, New York – London – Sydney – Toronto – Singapore, printed in Italy, ISBN:0-7432-3664-5
Christie’s: The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor, New York, 2011 (Auction catalogue)
Christie’s: Elizabeth Taylor a-Z, New York, 2011 (booklet for the exhibition)