Princess Diana’s Andy Warhol Jewels: Where Are They Now?

Tomorrow in London, a famous portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales will be sold at auction. Before the sale, let’s have a closer look at the picture–and, more importantly, at the jewelry that Diana is wearing in the iconic portrait.

On March 7, the London auction house Phillips will sell one of a series of four silkscreened portraits of Diana, Princess of Wales made by Andy Warhol. Phillips has published an extensive write-up to accompany the sale. They note, “Executed in 1982, following the wedding of Diana to Prince Charles the year before, the work is a strikingly tender portrait of the young princess, the prominent display of her engagement ring a poignant symbol not only of her marriage to Charles, but of her deep love and commitment for her people. Alongside Warhol’s defining Pop portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, Portrait of Princess Diana exemplifies the artist’s unique ability to select timeless images that not only distill the captivating essence of his subjects, but that transform them–under the artist’s treatment–from celebrities into cultural icons of their time.”

The picture being sold by Phillips was acquired by its present owner at a Christie’s auction in October 1998. At that auction, it brought £104,900. (At the same time, a companion portrait of Prince Charles was also auctioned, selling for £47,700.) Before that sale, the painting had been held in the same private collection since 1987.

Other variants of the portrait made by Warhol also exist. This green variant from the series belonged to Lord Archer, who sold it (along with the companion Charles portrait) through the art dealer Peter Gwyther in 1998. A violet version that belonged to Warhol’s business manager, Frederick W. Hughes, has been sold more than once at auction, bringing in a remarkable £692,500 at a Sotheby’s sale in London in October 2007. And a pink version was offered for sale by a gallery in London in 2011 as well.

The Warhol portraits are based on photographs of Diana and Charles taken during their royal engagement. The images were taken at Charles’s country home, Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, by Lord Snowdon–the famed society and portrait photographer who had once been married to Charles’s aunt, Princess Margaret. Diana wore an emerald green taffeta ballgown and diamonds, her sapphire engagement ring winking up from her left hand. The portraits were published in the official souvenir royal wedding guide in May 1981.

The jewels worn by Diana for the portrait session would be immortalized on countless magazine and book covers–and, ultimately, by Andy Warhol in his series of silkscreened portraits. But the diamonds weren’t royal jewels. In fact, they were never owned by Diana at all. The classic diamond girandole earrings and the accompanying fleur-de-lis necklace were borrowed for the occasion from Collingwood, a London-based jewelry firm that had supplied pieces to the Spencers and to members of the royal family for decades.

Collingwood had hoped that the jewels would be more than a loan. In The Queen’s Jewels, published in the 1980s, Leslie Field wrote that the jewelers had wanted to offer Diana the necklace and earrings as a wedding present. The plan was nixed by Buckingham Palace. Field notes that “palace officials ruled that such a valuable present would be improper.” The firm ultimately ended up selling the jewels to another unidentified person. Eventually, Field recounts, they made their way to a dealer working in Dusseldorf. He advertised them as Spencer family heirlooms, based on phony evidence that had been provided to him by the dealer from whom he had acquired the pieces. But, Field clarifies, they were never owned by the Spencers at all–just worn by Diana on one occasion for a series of photographs that was published far and wide. The jewels have been in private hands ever since.

Unable to gift the diamonds to the new Princess of Wales, Collingwood settled on a more modest wedding present for the princess: a pair of classic diamond and pearl drop earrings. Diana treasured these and wore them often for gala occasions throughout her royal marriage. They were a particularly nice pairing with Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara, a royal heirloom that had been loaned to her on a long-term basis by her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II.

Now, the Collingwood Pearl Drop Earrings are worn by Diana’s daughter-in-law, the present Princess of Wales. Catherine has used the earrings extensively. They’re versatile pieces, classic and beautiful, perfect for both daytime and evening occasions. Like Diana before her, Kate likes to wear the earrings with the Lover’s Knot Tiara–and she has also added Queen Alexandra’s Wedding Necklace to the mix, assembling a married parure of pearl drop jewels worn by her three predecessors as Princess of Wales. (I wrote about that combination in this week’s article over at Hidden Gems.) It’s too bad that the diamonds weren’t able to be accepted as a royal gift, but the pearl earrings are and were a useful and attractive compromise.

But back to that Warhol portrait. His blue silkscreened Portrait of Princess Diana will be sold by Phillips in London tomorrow (March 7) in an evening auction. They’re expecting the art piece to bring in between £1.2 million and £1.8 million GBP (or around $1.5 million to $2.3 million USD). We’ll all have to stay tuned to see how much Warhol’s Diana fetches when the hammer falls.