Gina Lollobrigida or Italian actress destined to be “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World”! She was selling off a jewelry collection created by Italian jewellers Bulgari to raise money for stem cell research. Her collection has fetched almost $5 million (£3.3 million) at Sotheby’s Geneva.
Lollobrigida, 85, said she was “very happy that the jewels would help a good cause.
“Selling my jewels to help raise awareness of stem cell therapy, which can cure so many illnesses, seems to me a wonderful use to which to put them,” she said in a statement.
The highlight of the auction – pair of diamond and natural pearl earrings sold for $2.37 million, an auction record.
The auction house said the collection which included 20 pieces of jewelry went for twice as much as the original estimate.
The jewelry was part of Sotheby’s “Magnificent Jewels and Nobel Jewels” auction, held in Geneva after going on display in London, New York and Rome.
Other notable pieces included a late 19th-century 74.53-carat fancy yellow diamond owned by the Imperial Majesty Sultan Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty in Persia. It sold for $2.95 million, an auction record for a fancy yellow diamond.
