Prized Windsor Jewels Auctioned

The late Duchess of Windsor’s most prized jewels fetched the equivalent of $28 million on the opening night of a two-day auction Thursday, more than three times the previous record paid for any single collection.

The highest price, $2.9 million, was paid for a 31-carat diamond ring, by Tokyo diamond dealer Tsuneo Takagi. He said he will keep the precious object for his own display and not resell it.

Ninety-five top lots were offered on the first evening of the sale of mementos that recall the romance between Wallis Warfield Simpson, a twice-divorced American, and King Edward VIII, who gave up the British throne 50 years ago to marry her.

By Simpson’s will, proceeds of the sale will go to the Pasteur Institute in Paris, which has recently been in the forefront of the fight against acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The money is to go toward building at least one laboratory for research on retroviruses, cancer and AIDS, the auctioneer announced.

A ruby and diamond necklace, a 40th birthday present by the duke to the duchess in 1936, a year before they were married, went for $2.4 million to an anonymous phone bidder.

The highest sum previously paid at an auction for a single set of jewelry was $8.09 million for the collection of Florence Gould, widow of railway magnate Frank Gould.

Prices for the Windsor jewels soared to dizzying heights in early bidding as the first engraved pieces of jewelry went for 50 times the basic estimate.