Experts say some of the stones in the piece are a match with the original diamonds central to a royal scandal.

The magnificent necklace may contain diamonds involved in a scandal surrounding Marie-Antoinette, that would eventually trigger the French Revolution.

Tobias Kormind, managing director of Europe’s largest online diamond jeweller 77 Diamonds, shared his thoughts on the jewellery's historic allure: "A scandalous link to Marie Antoinette and the dramatic end of the French monarchy, this historic necklace, which is unusually intact for a Georgian jewel, has it all."

The piece was at the centre of a scandal in the 1780s known as the 'Diamond Necklace Affair' in which a hard-up noblewoman named Jeanne de la Motte pretended to be the French queen and acquired the necklace in her name without payment.

A necklace thought to contain diamonds from an earlier necklace which embroiled Marie Antoinette in scandal has found success at auction.

(IDEX Online) - An historic necklace that has been linked to Marie Antoinette sold for $4.8m at Sotheby's Geneva, smashing its pre-auction high estimate of $2.8m. Seven bidders battled it out before the hammer finally fell on what has been described as one of the most magnificent and intact Georgian jewels in private hands.

A 300-carat necklace, whose diamonds have been linked to a scandal involving the last French queen Marie Antoinette, sold Wednesday for nearly $5 million at a Sotheby's auction in Geneva.

A diamond-studded necklace thought to be linked to a scandal that hastened the downfall of the doomed 18th century queen of France, Marie Antoinette, sold at auction in Geneva on Wednesday for 4.26 million Swiss francs ($4.

A diamond necklace that has been worn at two British coronations, and is thought to contain stones from the infamous necklace at the heart of a Marie Antoinette scandal, sold for over $4.8 million at an auction.

The 300-carat necklace thought to be at the center of the infamous 'Affair of the Diamond Necklace' that contributed to the French Revolution sold at auction in Geneva

"There is obviously a niche in the market for historical jewels with fabulous provenances," Sotheby's jewelry specialist Andres White Correal said after a diamond-studded necklace with a possible link to Marie Antoinette's downfall sold for more than double the pre-sale estimate.