What is the most expensive piece of movie jewellery ever made?
When a movie becomes extremely popular, it surpasses simply being an enjoyable piece of cinema to become a cultural phenomenon, a brand, or an indicator of someone’s personality. Movie franchises like Star Wars and Marvel spawn countless pieces of merchandise, amusement rides and more, amassing dedicated followers who become obsessed with certain characters, costumes, and other, more minute details.
Fans often become so obsessed with their favourite movies that they buy replicas of their favourite on-screen outfits and accessories. These pieces become incredibly iconic, difficult to untether from the characters who sported them. It’s hard to look at yellow plaid mini skirts without thinking of Clueless or red-heeled shoes without recalling the image of Dorothy clicking her feet in The Wizard of Oz.
Fans with large wallets might be lucky enough to buy the real props and costumes from their favourite movies, such as Martin Scorsese, who owns the actual ballet slippers from The Red Shoes. However, some of the most expensive pieces of movie memorabilia are jewellery, which, if sold at auction, would only be affordable to the world’s elite. It should be unsurprising that the most expensive piece of movie jewellery – if it were real – is the blue necklace worn by Rose in Titanic.
You can buy replicas of the necklace for much more budget-friendly prices if you want to feel like Rose, who famously wore the piece while posing for Jack, who sketched her in the nude, wearing nothing but the diamonds. In the film, an $8,000 necklace made of zirconia and white gold was used, although it was meant to look like it was made of much more expensive materials.
Named the ‘Heart of the Ocean’ necklace, it was designed to look as though it contained a 56-carat blue diamond, with the surrounding details, including the whole chain, covered in white diamonds. According to Queensmith Jewellers, this is estimated at a staggering $640,459,047, although some other sources value it at $200-300 million, which is still an insanely high amount.
At the end of the film, an elderly Rose tosses the expensive necklace into the ocean, a symbol of her letting go. Allowing it to join Jack, who died in the icy waters as they attempted to flee the sinking ship, the necklace sank to the bottom of the ocean, floating down with her memories of a love she never forgot.
When Titanic was released, it was the highest-grossing film of all time, much to director James Cameron’s relief, who used $200m to make the blockbuster. It garnered an instant fanbase and remains adored by many today, who can’t help but tear up at the emotional scenes of people fending for their lives in the chaos of disaster while the love story between Jack and Rose comes to a tragic end. The necklace remains the most iconic symbol from the film, and following the success of the movie, a real version was made, which Celine Dion wore to sing the song’s theme, ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at the Oscars. It contained a 171-carat blue sapphire and 103 diamonds, selling for $2.2m.
