In his outstanding biography of the duchess of windsor "Behind Closed door", Hugo Vickers explains in details that many belongings of the duchess of Windsor were sold privately, and some times not very well, during the last years of her life.
jewels, china, paintings gold boxes, were removed from the safes and drawing rooms and sold this way, in order, to meet the duchess medical bills. He also explains that the the duchess was rather rich, but that her lawyers, who had power of attorney on her estate, as she was completely incapable of signing anything at the time, made a lot of sales, which did not seem appropriates.
Vickers also explains, that the duchess was in the rather unpleasant position of being a rich, old, alone widow, with no relatives to take care of her in her final years. She was more or less in a state of panic about her finances. It seems, she believed, wrongly, that she did not have enough money, and agreed to some of the sales. This is the reason, some jewels disappeared. The most famous piece sold, is the yellow heart shaped, diamond ring which was sold to Estée Lauder.
Some, but not many, pieces of jewelry were also transformed at her request. The most famous example is the emerald necklace sold a her auction. The main emerald in that piece was a pear shaped emerald bought at Harry Winston. It was used as a pendant to the necklace. The five other emeralds came from a Van Cleef & Arpels bracelet.
on September 10, 2016, 10:22 am, in reply to "