How the Affair of the Diamond Necklace changed history—and why 18th-century jewelry remains an eternal holy grail.

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."

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

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

Worn at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, the 300-carat diamond necklace sold Wednesday for more than twice its estimate at an 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.

A diamond necklace supposedly related to a scandal that precipitated the downfall of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France in the 18th century, was auctioned on Wednesday in Geneva for 4.26 million Swiss francs (4.