Marie Antoinette's two diamond bracelets were sold for £6million after being expected to fetch up to £3million at an auction today, 228 years after her death.
The pair of silver and yellow gold bracelets are both made up of three strands and contain 112 diamonds.
The stunning jewellery was sold by a mystery European royal family member at Christie's auction in Geneva, Switzerland.
Marie Antoinette originally bought the bracelets for 250,000 livres in 1776, just two years after taking the throne with her husband King Louis XVI
The two bracelets contained 112 diamonds and sold for £6million after being expected to fetch up to £3million at an auction today
The bracelets were hidden once she and her husband King Louis XVI were taken as prisoners in Paris during the French Revolution and were found after her beheading in 1793.
Marie Antionette placed the bracelets in a wooden chest entrusted to Austrian ambassador and friend Count Mercy-Argenteau, in Brussels in 1791.
She originally bought the bracelets for 250,000 livres in 1776, just two years after taking the throne with her husband King Louis XVI, paying for them partly with gemstones from her personal collection and with funds provided by her husband.
Marie Antoinette's two diamond bracelets were sold for £6million after being expected to fetch up to £3million at an auction today, 228 years after her death
But surprisingly a ruby and diamond Cartier bangle owned by Wallis Simpson the Duchess of Windsor, gifted to her by the Duke of Windsor for their first wedding anniversary, did not sell.
It had been estimated to fetch up to £1.62 million.
Tobias Kormind, the managing director of Europe's largest online jeweller 77 Diamonds, said: 'This evening's auction was both shocking and fantastic.
The bracelets were hidden once she and her husband King Louis XVI were taken as prisoners in Paris during the French Revolution and were found after her beheading in 1793
