Maria Callas’ jewelry is sold
From Associated Press
Jewelry formerly belonging to Maria Callas -- most of it given to the opera star by her husband, Italian industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini -- fetched $1.86 million at an auction in Geneva.
About 200 collectors packed the Sotheby’s auction room for Wednesday’s sale.
The most expensive of the jewels -- an 11.7-carat marquise-shaped diamond ring -- sold for $340,000.
A diamond-and-ruby necklace that Callas often wore at recitals went for almost double its estimate, selling for $280,000.
When she died in 1977 at 53, Callas had no heirs and didn’t leave a will. She reportedly gave the jewels to a friend upon her death, and that person, whom Sotheby’s refused to identify, is selling them now.