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Nov 26, 2023

'She wore it so beautifully!' Marlene Dietrich's bracelet sells for MILLIONS

Marlene Dietrich's bracelet has sold for $4.5 million. The late Hollywood legend

Marlene Dietrich's bracelet has sold for $4.5 million.

The late Hollywood legend wore the Van Cleef and Arpels ruby and diamond Jarretière bracelet at the 1951 Academy Awards and in Alfred Hitchcock's film 'Stage Fight' the year before but it was put up for sale at the New York auction house Christie's - which has handled the sale of many other Hollywood props over the years, including a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in 'The Wizard of Oz' - when it was featured amongst a number of other Tiffany and Co items a lot titled 'The Magnificent Jewels of Anne Eisenhower'.

Claibourne Poindexter, VP and jewellery specialist at Christie's told The Hollywood Reporter: "This bracelet is legendary in a lot of ways. It was one of [Dietrich's] favourite pieces of jewellery. It's bold. It's very large in scale and has a wonderful curvature. She wore it so beautifully in 'Stage Fright', an Alfred Hitchcock film from 1950, and you get this appreciation for how sculptural the design is. It doesn't really fit into any period. It's not art deco jewellery. It's not retro jewelry. It's just sort of high glamour. It really is its own work of art."

The whole auction fetched a total of $11.5 million, but Marlene's bracelet - which was designed by Louis Arpel and made up of diamond earrings, a diamond necklace, a matching ruby bracelet, and earrings and some pins - fetched the highest amount of the lot,

It was initially estimated that the item - which ended up in a collection owned by the granddaughter of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower prior to its sale - would fetch $2,500,000-$4,500,000 and eventually hit the higher end of the scale when it was sold on Wednesday.