Elizabeth Taylor Auction of a lifetime

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[Music] she was the queen of Hollywood she had the jewels to match tribute from the men who adored her every item in her collection tells part of the story of her extraordinary life eight marriages to seven husbands three Oscars thank you madam mayor countless personal drivers she was greedy for love for movie roles and especially for diamonds Elizabeth Taylor died on the 23rd of March 2011 and now her possessions are all being sold at the auction of a lifetime she was the biggest star in the world I mean there will never be another Elizabeth Taylor it's like being a queen of any country I guess you show up looking good at the height of her superstardom no one in the world could outshine her Elizabeth Taylor is a brand that defies gravity she's the last great stuff and I think people loved her because she was so real despite that incredible fame crazy life she came in an era where fashion and clothes and movies were larger than life you know before the Internet she was before the paparazzi crazes but they went crazy over her because she created excitement wherever she went and the excitement was only increased by Elizabeth Taylor's fiery relationship with actor Richard Burton the collision of these two superstars captured the world's imagination if you are so devoted to each other as I think you are what about all these Rob's you can't pick up a movie magazine or anything about Liz and Dick battling I think having a fight and now outrageous ridiculous fight is one of the greatest exercises in marital together nuts we haven't called for at least 48 hours like that bit of ice cube you have on your finger there there that's to keep me cool in 1969 Elizabeth had heard that this the largest diamond ever put on the market was up for auction she insisted on seeing it before the sale [Music] her wish was Sotheby's command and her favorite auctioneer Ward Landrigan was flown with it all the way from New York to Switzerland where she and Burton was staying in her Alpine chalet I went to staad and I just had no idea what I was getting into it was the biggest diamond I've ever seen it was 69 point something carats was size of an egg this diamond came with a necklace with a fitting on the bottom and also with a ring mount and an a screwdriver and two screws so you could unscrew it from one if one minute it could be a necklace and the next minute it could be a ring which appealed to Elizabeth because it looked great as both she wanted to play with it every half hour every hour she'd say well it's time to make it a necklace so I would get out the screwdriver and make it into a necklace and should wear it they kept saying well what do you think it's gonna bring I said I don't know would Landrigan returned to New York with the diamond and was the auctioneer on the day Elizabeth Taylor's lawyer was there to bid on her behalf but she lost out to the jeweler Cartier who outbid her getting it for a world record of 1 million and $50,000 10 minutes after the auction she's what did I pay for it I said you didn't get it you know but that's between you and Aaron your lawyer if Elizabeth wanted something she got it the Burton's contacted Cartier immediately and the upmarket jewelers saw a unique publicity opportunity they would sell it to her for a minimum profit if she agreed to let it go on display first the shortly to be renamed Taylor Burton diamond drew crowds in New York Chicago and Beverly Hills Cartier cordially invites you to view the Cartier diamond on display and then you have the cutter Diamond has now been acquired by Elizabeth Taylor Burton they wanted their love to be public everybody was interested in what was going on between them and also it was the the period of stardom when when stardom were is really something very important when stars were untouchable there's a picture of her in a blue gown and she was very tan that's Elizabeth Taylor at her height it's what she wanted it's you know if you're a movie star with all the money in the world and look like that why shouldn't you have it she's true fabulosity there was a term that we used to use like for over-the-top for jewelry and everything called bling she was the real bling bling after their relationship ended elizabeth sold the taylor burton diamond in 1978 for five million dollars it was the only piece she ever sold her jewels were doubly precious to her as each one held a memory of her astonishing life they are [Music] Elizabeth Taylor's jewels have now been on a world tour before landing in New York for the auction just us with the Taylor Burton diamond over 40 years ago everywhere they have attracted huge crowds [Music] each item of jewelry was closely associated in her mind with the person who gave it she even wrote a book called my love affair with jewelry there were days where we would be in Elizabeth's bedroom and sometimes we would have she would have the jewelry brought in and spread out on the bed and Elizabeth would play with it the way a child plays with her dolls the jewelry were sort of talismans of people and wonderful experiences in her life and there was all the good times [Music] the opening evening of the auction of the Elizabeth Taylor collection in New York is a glamorous affair attracting a wide range of people jeweler's fans dealers collectors and the simply curious she was just over glamorous and it's a part of history tonight last time I was here for something like this it was Marilyn Monroe they're icons such as most women I mean she got gifts this is no ordinary auction it is the largest collection of jewelry ever to go on sale outshining by far even the duchess of windsor the proceeds will go to Elizabeth Taylor's estate as always Elizabeth knew how to create a path of excitement the glossy five-volume catalog alone costs $300 and for each lot the catalog gives an estimated price based on the auctioneers valuation we arrive that the estimates of the is a b'stilla collection without taking into account the Elizabeth Taylor premium what we are living now if the market to decide how much more than the intrinsic value of the stone each piece will be worse thank you so much for coming and I welcome you to this first sale the legendary jewels from the many collections of Elizabeth Taylor okay let me see I would probably choose the emerald and diamond Bulgari ring is rather fab and they will be and diamond bracelet by Cartier and the emerald and diamond ear pendants Oh only 30,000 to 50,000 you can afford it New York December 2011 the greatest ever auction of one person's jewelry collection is about to begin hello everybody I'm sorry for the delay but in true Elizabeth Taylor style will be starting about 10 or 15 minutes late famous for being late Elizabeth Taylor had learned the ways of stardom early [Music] she was born in 1932 in Hampstead to American parents when she was 7 the family left London for Beverly Hills her mother a stage actress had screen ambitions for her daughter she was signed to MGM at the age of 11 and her big break came a year later when she starred with Mickey Rooney in National Velvet I want to be a famous Rider we were both under contract to the studio she was a wonderful little girl and she wanted to make good Elizabeth learned that as the star she had power and would be rewarded accordingly at the end of the day they surprised Elizabeth by giving her giving she owned and deeper a beautiful horse this was the stout of a lifetime's obsession with being given presents [Music] as a studio starlet her life was heavily controlled when she was cast in the movie father of the bride MGM strongly encouraged her marriage at the age of 18 to the hotel chain heir Nikki Hilton marriage lasted less than a year as Hilton was violent and unfaithful within a year of her quick divorce she married the English actor Michael Wilding with whom she had two sons this marriage lasted five years ending in 1957 [Music] lot number nine the Mike diamond ear pendants 130,000 at 130 it was when 24-year old Elizabeth met up with the charismatic movie producer Mike Todd 22 years her senior that her jewelry collection started to become truly spectacular I get my hands in a few hours occasionally and I think there's no better way in the world of spending it than trying to spoil Elizabeth you can't but that lead somebody wants that is Elizabeth spoiled noises I don't know [Music] Todd was an extravagant character and when he fell head-over-heels in love with her he wanted to show it and Elizabeth was never shy about receiving gifts apparently she and Todd were in Paris in the Place Vendome and she sees some earrings hanging in the window and she Mike Mike I must have those they're so fabulous you know and really I mean could you say no I don't think so and he couldn't but they were costume they were paste Elizabeth didn't care she just thought they were fabulous he buys them she wears them and some months later they're getting ready to go out to a party Elizabeth said you know she took out the box with the Jaron dolls in it and she puts them on she stuck her stuff you know the box looks a little different and she puts on the earrings she thought Jesus you know they're just not hanging exactly the same way I remember them and she says that she looks at Mike and now he's laughing and he lets on that unbeknownst to her he had taken the original paste earrings and had them copied all in diamonds and Elizabeth said well I had to thank him needless to say we were late for the party let's just say she was always grateful for a good gift [Music] and Lorraine Schwartz made jewelry for Elizabeth and now finds herself bidding for the Mike Todd earrings I knew how much he loved the Mike Todd earrings so for some reason when those went up I don't even know what possessed me there weren't even something that I was looking at because I knew that they're gonna go crazy I literally felt her behind me kicking me saying come on you know you want them just buy them and I did and I'm so happy I did because she's photographed in them and so many iconic photos and I'm really happy that I got them he's back here with you I get you sir so you could say you could look it up they were over three hundred thousand dollars back here with you against you sir at three hundred and ten thousand [Music] she married Mike Todd after a whirlwind romance he had produced the movie around the world in 80 days and brilliant marketing man that he was the movies round the world publicity tour was effectively their honeymoon [Music] her fame of course helped sell his film she was by now pregnant and quite able to hold her own with inquisitive reporters you had the mind of a child and woman's body am i right well I was wondering since you've been married to such a mature man of the world I was mr. Todd you feel you've matured somewhat now well I hope retarded wasn't nice well thanks very much Mike and Liz and best of luck with the bid see you're not playing with children that was a pretty good come here lot number 79 is the Mike Todd diamond tiara beautiful tiara worn by Miss Taylor at the awards in 1957 Mike Todd spectacular movie swept the Oscars in 1957 for the ceremony he gave her a magnificent vintage tiara made in 1880 Elizabeth talked about that tiara you know she said Mike Todd gave a turn he said you know I love you and you're my queen and you should have this tiara and she wore it all the time I think the first time she wore was at the Oscars when around the world in 80 days received the Oscar for Best Picture that was the first time it was sort of trotted out in public like anything that Elizabeth likes she just wore it again and again and again and she would say I don't even care if it's fashionable I like wearing it I mean how many women can walk around in a tiara and not look ridiculous she was a fairy princess in that tiara and it was something the likes of which we really have never seen certainly not in America where tiaras are not so common [Music] three million seven hundred thousand dollars two million seven hundred thousand thank you good evening there's Mike anybody home Todd is always late probably on the phone mr. and mrs. Mike Todd appeared on person-to-person with ed Murrow live from their penthouse apartment in Manhattan what sort of fellow is Mike to live with no he's a wonderful man he has everything that you could possibly want he has a wonderful sense of humor I don't want any 76 Mike Todd walked into Cartier in Monaco and couldn't resist this ruby and diamond extravaganza necklace earrings and bracelet Mike Todd Boat one of a most precious piece of jury available on the Riviera at that time so when you see the footage at the moment when she receives a jury from the hands of Mike guard you see how happy she looks and in fact she compares the level of her happiness to the quality of a son of a beautiful day she is weighted she is very very happy she told me her true love was my Todd and I mean it was sort of surprising she would say that when she said you know as she said I really she said I would have stayed married to Mike if he had lived she said I loved him the most he also gave her some of the nicest jewelry [Music] travel you will trouble your senko three-point-one no more all right gents you may be for you man I'm up front three million one hundred thousand dollars 3.1 and fifty three million three hundred thousand at three million three hundred thousand dollars three point three in the private plane named for his wildly the drama of the showman reaches fini Mike Todd left Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood because she had a virus it was March 1958 the plane crashed in the New Mexico mountains there were no survivors they had been married for just over a year and her baby daughter was seven months old Elizabeth had been choosing the movie Cat on a Hot Tin Roof heartbroken by the death of her husband she went on and finished the movie giving one of the best performances of her career [Music] still grieving over the loss of Mike Todd she swiftly found solace in the arms of his best friend the singer Eddie Fisher who at the time was married to Debbie Reynolds Elizabeth famously said Mike's dead and I'm alive what do you expect me to do sleep alone the scandal associated with that basically being seen to take Eddie Fisher away from America's Sweetheart Debbie Reynolds really painted Elizabeth in a very poor light in the public consciousness ignoring public opinion and converting to Judaism Elizabeth married Eddie in Las Vegas she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but the whiff of scandal lingered she gets passed over at the Oscars she then is pushed by Mary fulfill her contract and so she has to do Butterfield 8 and as she later said I was the slut of all time Louie B Meyer at MGM capitalized on Elizabeth's notoriety by casting her as a high-class hooker you have a price we all have and I can get pretty high command performance has lead me quite cold I've had more fun in the backseat about 39 for then I could never have enough old of the chase National Bank you're all alike but it was the last film she made inside the studio system her contract was up and now she was free to choose her own roles when offered Cleopatra she demanded and got a million dollars a son that made her the highest-paid actor in the world [Music] [Music] Cleopatra did not start well filming in London Elizabeth got pneumonia and had to have an emergency tracheotomy her life was in the balance I got a phone call from my agent Jay Kantor saying stand by the phone Elizabeth's very sick they think she might not make it and if she dies you have to be on the next plane to London you're gonna play Cleopatra and I said that's terrible so I waited by the phone and the next day he called me said she's gonna make it which I was very pleased about Elizabeth pulled through and in a wave of sympathy for her unexpectedly won an Oscar for Butterfield 8 she was back in the Hollywood fold she beat a very strong field including her friend shirley maclaine to the apartment shirley maclaine famously said I lost out to a tracheotomy for the Oscar because it was very much seen as compensation for Elizabeth's illness and I suppose a token of forgiveness in the public imagination in some way but the most celebrated drama of her extraordinary life was only just beginning she was due to fly to Rome to start shooting scenes with a man she had never met little did she know that he would change her life for him [Music] September 1961 the Cleopatra shoot moved to Rome and Elizabeth with husband Eddie Fisher in tow got back to work Elizabeth had gone to Rome to film Cleopatra she'd never met Burton she was irritated having to go there she was newly married to Eddie Fisher which was of course creating ripple waves all over the place because she had been Mike Todd's best friends so she's in Rome she'd heard all about Richard Burton she even had thought beforehand Oh God you know why do I meet this guy just you know he thinks he's gonna make me another scalp on his belt well he's got a second thought coming [Music] at the Cinecitta studios Cleopatra could not resist her Antony on screen and off and the passion was mutual an official knew his only chance of winning back his wife from Burton was in the display cabinets of the room jeweler Bulgari I certainly meet her with an official she was certainly more glamorous than him that's for question the glamour of Richard Burton was challenging the one of Elizabeth Taylor they were on the same level of glamour in some way the other I couldn't say that Wendy Fisher 55 dependency by Bugatti lot 55 220,000 dollars at 220 240 now two hundred and sixty thousand two hundred and eighty thousand Eddie Fisher bought Elizabeth a pair of Bulgari yellow diamond earrings the plan was to give them to her at her 30th birthday dinner at this Rome restaurant you know I know a magician photography see you know taser in a wad all of your rumors of her affair were now raging wherever she went the tabloid photographers were hungry for the story quiz the humanity got the beneath seemed okay Shannara no sewer Ristorante genera no in an angle or quit da da competitor take a boy for a jutted I mean she because of all your development Eddie had brought the earrings in a box which he gave to Elizabeth that evening in front of all the guests including Joan Collins well he was kind of an unfortunate dinner because everybody sort of knew that she was having relationship with Burton and Eddie had come there to kind of save the day she was very dismissive of it he gave it to in front of 30 people in ten o'clock mrs. oh yeah cute and passed it down the table and we all looked and when I was very very nice but she didn't seem too enthused by head a lot of us were quite horrified at the way she treated the poor guy Eddie Fisher's plan to dazzle his wife didn't work humiliated he flew back to America and he later sent her a bill for the earrings 1,400,000 so for you say 1 million for [Applause] [Music] all the food yeah [Music] falling [Music] when no you down will feed me Cleopatra creatine Ishita yo you sure know Anthony a young Lisa fantastic Encantada Encantada Lisa Burton am in Amira's in Padua lui Angelo's Oh Liddy Gavin same prefer a rotten trabajo to talk with the press pack clamoring for that all-important proof of their affair finally the story broke richard was known to be a big womanizer I do remember the picture it was on the front of the Daily Mail it was him and her on the deck of a boat spooning as it were and it was kind of the talk of the town I wasn't surprised because I'd worked with Richard Burton and Richard Burton had told me very clearly that he went to bed with all of his leading ladies and when I turned him down he he said I'm sorry how can you break my record and I said very easily thank you I'm not about to be another notch on your belt the sin of adultery provoked outrage in the Vatican and a press frenzy the staff had to beat back the paparazzi the Vatican is absolutely scandalized I mean there's all these articles in the Rome newspaper about how the Pope is mad at Elizabeth Taylor for you know carrying on an affair I mean how many times does the Pope get to comment on an adulteress so I'm sure she thought it was hysterically funny but it all began because these two had improperly fallen in love on the set of Cleopatra he was married she was married you know and it led them to Bulgari [Music] Elizabeth Taylor was the Elizabeth Taylor show and she was Lee's star and everybody else was co-starring including Richard Burton for her jewelry had to be conspicuous expensive otherwise but not really worth it actually you know I think she felt what this has come to most women I see that she was a very pricey woman worth a lot and she deserved gifts which were pricey 28m would a diamond necklace by bulgaria for $800,000 $800,000 $900,000 boogery was the place where she could get what she wanted from the moon and she had to get those things but she had to get those things actually as a gift actually whatever because was part is a potato show apparently Burton had said to Johnny Bulgari I want to buy Elizabeth something and it's nothing over a hundred thousand dollars vulgar a very smart guy opens the drawer and brings out something and you know Taylor Burton kind of huh yeah it's so small we can't see it he said well you said you only had a hundred thousand dollars to spend they said well you know seriously just you've got to give us something that's a little better than that imagine this about Taylor and Richard Burton two great actors on on the stage and I was the public there and just looking at it and trying to sort of arbitraged the sort you although I knew perfectly well that she was gonna win anyhow because she had to get it I mean I knew her enough to know that if she wanted to get something she had together he starts to bring out some of these great emeralds and at this point as Lucas said we were so far down the rabbit hole you know there was no turning back it was kind of like we're halfway across the lake we had to keep swimming and so they started make a purchase their mutual passion was by all accounts overwhelming but for Elizabeth the acquisition of jewelry was almost foreplay it's measuring how much it's worth how much is loved much people care about her so everything was actually a tribute to her own personality and being so you know such a big ego this was part of the game [Music] now with the world at their feet they start together in a film called the vips playing a couple caught in a love triangle as so often with Elizabeth Taylor art was imitating life whenever he was in London Richard met up with his old Oxford friend fellow actor Robert Hardy the first meeting I had with Elizabeth was really quite awkward because she was the enemy she had stolen Richard from Sybil who I adored in everybody who knew Sybil adored and rich rang one day as he used to say I'm coming to the Dorchester come on up you know and he said there's somebody with me who wants to talk to you and on came elizabeth saying I hope you don't hate me didn't say well I do but anyway she said can we come to supper and I prevaricated and said there's any sausages and bacon and anybody came and it went all right you know but I must have been pretty frosty because she said as I put her into the car at the end please please don't hate me [Music] London 1963 Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were shooting the VIPs and the world was fascinated by their feelings for each other the basis of the great love for their passionate wild affair for each other was love and lust as well but their granites diamonds couldn't be as gentle as the ideal of love which I suppose most of us still have way back in the in our imaginations [Music] the moment the divorce from Eddie Fisher came through in early 1964 Elizabeth and Richard were at last able to marry his wedding present to her was another set of Bulgari emeralds this time a magnificent pair of ear pendants I think you know maybe some of us are more promiscuous but she I think married everybody she slept with you know I think it was as simple as that and I think one has to be very clear yet Elizabeth was not promiscuous in any way shape or form she was loyal and married loyal and friend but when she fell in love marriage was that was it hold on $2,800,000 so dude - and your number is Richard did with such fabulous wonderful jewelry and for fun she'd wears something in the pool just to please him and because it looks your grant that may sound frivolous but it's not if you think of the life that she led which was always in public and I always being watched [Music] Oh [Applause] [Applause] [Music] when they went to New York and Richard opened in Hamlet at the lunt-fontanne theatre on Broadway Elizabeth attended nearly every performance and the crowds came hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrated couple to have a Beatles like reaction to a Shakespearean play is really very weird and it sort of tells you the size of the stardom I mean you couldn't move [Music] at the lunt-fontanne Elizabeth traveled with a large entourage and her three children it was impossible for them to avoid the attention she generated when fresh-faced twenty three-year-old fullness champion went to their hotel for a job interview as the children's tutor he voiced his misgivings I told her that I was concerned that this might be hard on the children for a couple of reasons one because I knew she was very busy making movies and if they were staying in the same hotel with her they would expect to see her every day and I said I'm also concerned about them being in the public glare of publicity with you know all of what I'd seen all the people around them [Music] she actually became very emotional about it and started crying and at that point I actually had looked over to the one thing that's missing from this room that would have been there then which was a bar trolley and I went over and I actually you know just mixed her scotch on the rocks and one for myself and brought her over a drink and she proceeded to cry and tell me that you know this was such an important thing for her to have the children around and she started to plead with me to take the job [Music] for the next year Paul became part of the Taylor Burton menage staff dogs and children traveling the world with him including t-stat in the Swiss Alps where they all spent Christmas 1964 [Music] shortly afterwards Elizabeth and Richard left for a shoot leaving Paul and the children in the chalet I got a call from dick Hanley the secretary asking me to go into the master bedroom to pick out a particular set of earrings that she had left behind that she wanted well I gotten into the room and on the bed was all her jewelry and had just been dumped out of all the different sacks and was all in a heap on her bed and a sacks roll around it and I mean it was every piece of jewelry that up to that point that you'd seen in every movie and every picture of her it was that the diamonds emeralds necklace and earrings and you know the tea hours and everything was there and it had been left in an unlocked room in an unlocked Chalet without any of us knowing it was there for at least three weeks um and so I did go over and pick out the earrings and get them sent down to him but when I asked them whether I should lock this stuff off they said don't worry about it just this Jim nobody knows it's there after a year tutoring her children Paul was called up for military service he had had an intimate perspective on the nature of their lives it's something that I think even the most famous person couldn't possibly get used to Elisabeth obviously led a very complicated life which lent itself to this kind of exploitation with years of unceasing intrusion it's no wonder that in this rare clip Elizabeth seems nostalgic for her childhood years in London before almost every moment of her life was spent in the public gaze I was born and lived in London till I was 7 because my father an art dealer practiced his profession here during that time I've often come back to visit and to work and each time I've learned more about the city yet I have to be truthful with myself the London Eye see today's London remembered for Elizabeth the studio system was really the constant shadow on her childhood remember I mean from very early days on I guess the age of 12 she was under contract to Metro go her men and that meant a that you did as you were told and B you played what parts you were told to play and there was very little rebellion she chafed at it she shaved on it because she felt it robbed her of her childhood Elizabeth you know grew up fast in front of the camera that beauty just soared by 17 she was as beautiful as a woman of 30 but because of that the studio was like a golden handcuff I mean Ruby Mayer had been a considerable bully and she resented being owned and rightly so she was very savvy she knew what she was worth and she knew that for most of her career she put an incredible number of blossoms in cinema seats when working for a studio she would take every crumb off the table she could she loved presence and she loved nice clause in a contract and she was tickled by all of those things and because she was educated at metro-goldwyn-mayer her love of studios was de minimis and so if if she could get one over on the studio Evers that was good news in 1965 she fought against the screen siren image by taking the role of the overweight alcoholic nymphomaniac Martha Elizabeth Taylor Richard Burton I think it's fair to say Elizabeth had a lingering resentment towards producers and the control of producers and she and Burton made sure that they took a percentage of the box-office takings for Virginia Woolf in which they both gave magnificent towering performances hers won an Oscar his didn't but the film made a great deal of money for the studio and for the stars they were on the crest of a wave everything they touched made money and they knew how to spend it in 1967 they bought a private plane and a 165-foot yacht Akal yzma but even though Elizabeth was a multi-millionairess she had no qualms about spending other people's money when shooting a movie in London the producers paid all the expenses of her entourage staying with her at the Dorchester for the duration the hotel at the Dorchester was $180,000 in 1967 or something that's a lot of money it's like a million dollars to stay in the hotel for the making of a movie we found the hotel bill one day was really astronomical will her boys and my son were all ordering champagne and oysters for breakfast it was a show of my epic installation plus several numbers dreamed up by Elizabeth Taylor in 1968 she even invested in a fashion house being started by Vicky tiel in Paris one French fashion correspondent described the collection as aggressively sexy but very feminine who can argue Richard Burton commented had last girls look like girls very true this is Elizabeth caftan been around and this is incredible silk real silk lemay from the 1920s and real silver embroidered and we just put this over our heads and then have awesome belts that we would wear magic belts with it and lie around hotels receive lying on couches and this wind Elizabeth gave back to me because she said itched her boobies it's just my boobies I can't have that so this is real silver I said and she said no no it's just my boobies take it back and so I I got it back they then embarked on a spending spree for jewelry that was extraordinary even my Elizabeth standards Elizabeth Taylor diamond 33 carat 19 D color potentially flawless lot number 80 gift from Richard Burton in 1968 two million dollars at two million dollars two million two hundred thousand two million four hundred thousand 2,600,000 two million eight hundred thousand dollars if there was any one piece that really seemed to send her and not just down memory lane but almost have a magical effect on her it was it was the Krupp ring now known as the Elizabeth Taylor diamond that ring no matter how many times Elizabeth Warren or spoke about it it clearly was magic it's a jeweler's jewel it's that good I mean that the proportions are beautiful it's like a drop of water but it's huge I mean well huge by some standards it's about an inch square and I was playing with it the other day it was funny to see it on my hand but and now it's that you know somebody's gonna own it very soon six million dollars for you medium six million two hundred thousand front row in 1968 Ward Landrigan was the original auctioneer for the crop retirement and within minutes of the New York sale being over his office got a call from London it was Richard Burton she wants it today I said but we'll send it overnight and they said no no no you're bringing it you get on a plane I said well I'm not you know I don't have and they said just get on the plane so I did he went straight from Heathrow to the Dorchester this was ward landrigans first encounter with the Barrens it was in my pocket and they dropped me off at the Dorchester Hotel I was a bit nervous at this point knowing who was in there and I knocked on the door and Richard answered the door and he said where is it I said it's in my pocket so I pulled it out was in a box and I opened the box and handed it to him and then he called over his shoulder Elizabeth and she came running out in her terry bathrobe looking pretty good and they embraced and I stood there awkwardly I was 27 so you know I'd never met him movie star and I was from a working-class family in New Jersey so it was like you know I'm thinking now what do I do because Elizabeth had demanded the diamond straight after the sale there was no time to arrange insurance so Ward had to travel with Elizabeth and the ring to Wales where Burton was taking his wife to show her his roots I mean my whole thing was to stay with the diamond so that was what I did for five days standing there with watching the ring I mean that outfit that I had on is what I wore over because that's what I was wearing in the office but I did buy some new shirts and underwear and things like that the first thing she said after you know stuck it on her hand she said look at my fat little fingers don't they look great she had a self effacing sense of humor too she was very good and you know she'd say people think I'm tacky or things like that means I don't care and then later on we got in the cars again and took off for someplace that was actually rather seedy but but sort of wonderful it was a big sort of a beer hall with sawdust on the floor and it plunked a chair right in the middle of it so Elizabeth sort of sat like a queen and they all they all gathered round her and she let all the ladies try on the ring which was rather wonderful and Richard was socializing and it was quite a long evening I've never drunk so much in my life because they they did you know and I wasn't I mean you know I like a drink but this was this was non-stop can't you see here against you madam there against the telephones it's the Elizabeth Taylor diamond she wore it every day as Robert Hardy discovered one day rich had rung up and said Elizabeth's in the Nuffield nursing home in Montego Square I can't get do go and visit her and I went and visited her and she was all alone in her room and she said look Tim because that's what their new Mears and she pulled out her hand from under the bedclothes and she said I never take it off and it was like a bit of old soap it was so dirty and I said dear God that's absolutely filthy give it to me it got in the gin and she said Jim gin there's a case of vodka at the foot of the bed I said right I'm cocked a bottle put the stopper in our Hatton base and poured the contents of bottle of vodka in set to work with one of her toothbrushes and then finished off with piping hot water and said there that's how you should keep it so for you sir seven million eight hundred thousand dollar Elizabeth was at a dinner with Princess Margaret and she was wearing her big croup diamond and Princess Margaret said oh my dear that's so vulgar so big so Elizabeth said why don't you try it on so she took it off and she gave it to Margaret and Moffat put it on and looked at it like that and Elizabeth said not so vulgar now is it I will the film these two were made for while Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were on an artistic roll they made a gutsy take on a Shakespeare comedy that reveled in the free song of their relationship a motion picture for every man who ever gave the back of his hand to his beloved as the producers of The Taming of the Shrew they made a profit of 10 million dollars but as the sixties waned so did they their insistence on putting their relationship first did not help their careers there is a feeling maybe it's folklore that it's impossible for two superstars like yourselves to be compatible what's your secret well I think we made a we made a deal and years ago Elizabeth myself that we would never work apart from each other I think destined and we break for lunch at the same hour so it's like almost being together in our dressing rooms the next door sure I probably sound silly and kind of childish but it really works like royalty but Taylor Burton's expected the world to revolve around them when Elizabeth was offered a movie set in Las Vegas she accepted but only if Las Vegas was recreated in Paris so that she could be near birth when the producers of the now hopelessly over-budget movie the only game in town finally managed to persuade Elizabeth to shoot the last few days of it in Las Vegas she and Richard checked into the honeymoon suite of Caesars Palace bringing their court with them this lifestyle of self-indulgent success really led to a less rigorous choice of film roles a lifestyle one might say of conspicuous consumption consisting of eating too much spending money to excess living life to the full and beyond and drinking a great deal of alcohol block number 12 the famous game arena Pearl probably one of the most beautiful girl in the world if not the having bought the most expensive diamond in the world why should we begin this they now heard about the upcoming auction of a jewel worthy of their quasi royal status it is here for yourself four million dollars running front of me at four million dollars the peregrina pearl the wanderer has an extraordinary history it was discovered in Panama in 1554 by an African slave the pearl won him his freedom it first owner was philip ii of spain who gave it to his Queen Mary Tudor but took it back after her death the pearl was worn by all Spanish queens at important state occasions it became a symbol of royal power there's a piece of history and it's an amazing piece of history but just when you hold something in the hand and you know that what five kings of Spain had it and it's in the Velazquez portraits it had an incredible history when the Spanish monarchy was deposed by Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century the Pearl passed into the possession of Louie Napoleon who sold it to help fund his triumphant return to France as Emperor Napoleon the third the Taylor Burton's acquired the pearl at Sotheby's New York in 1969 I think he particularly was enthralled with the history you know and the idea that married Tudor on this thing and now Elizabeth had it and he was very proud of that Ward Landrigan was once again summoned we had a call from Richard it was usual we want it right now bring it [Music] I didn't get to Las Vegas to like not one in the morning the Rolls Royce from the hotel picked me up I didn't used to ride around and roses except for the burdens so I got to the hotel and was escorted up to the honeymoon suite and they were there celebrating and they obviously been celebrating for quite a while Richard said what do you have to drink I said though have what you're having what is it he said it's a salty dog a salty dog what's a soft he talked he said it's clam juice and vodka that's why this time they knew I had it and I had it in my probiem my pocket and I produced it it was just in an envelope and it's on a little platinum chain Elizabeth put it on and of course almost always she wore something that had an amazing decollete it was her Bell POIs train was Bell I saw I had my salty dog and I'm sitting there nursing it slowly and she comes running over she says I lost the Pearl and it's the only thing left is the chain with a little sort of stick with the pearl head then I said did you look down there she said I looked and it's not there eight million five hundred thousand dollars nine million dollars so we're all on our hands and knees crawling around in his pink it was pepto-bismol pink shag it was about that thick and I'm thinking we'll never find the damn thing I saw the dog and he's gone I thought oh god I can't believe it it's been through 300 years of history and she's had 20 minutes and the damn dogs eating it nine million dollars we start looking at the brawl and it was fine I mean I think it I think a few of the little Nick's in it did come from the dog but it was fine and it's and then she had Cartier make this necklace and I shouldn't say it but it's not pretty when you design for a screen legend you're not designing for an average person the pieces that does have to have star quality it has to have magic Elizabeth herself was closely involved with Cartier in the making of the necklace writing detailed instructions on Durante's designs there were so many things going on as far as the stringing of the pearls she wanted it to rest in a very very nice place on her body she wanted it here and I'm not gonna go any further thank you very much the wandering pearl passed from King to Emperor and then to the queen of Hollywood the new owner of the peregrina has chosen to remain anonymous but whether it's a Russian oligarch or a Chinese billionaire the Pearl is a symbol of where 21st century power now lies some people give jewelry because they want to be recognized other people give jewelry because they just want to buy someone's attention but he bought jewelry for her and had these pieces of designer car Jade I know because they were special the most fabulous diamond in the world the most historical diamond in the world the most famous pearl in the world and I really think that a lot of these things connected Richard Burton with how fabulous he thought she was the two most expensive diamonds in the world the most famous pearl at the end of the sixties Elizabeth's earning power remained higher than Richards he might have adored her but her need for gifts definitely stretched his resources despite all the publicity that said you know a big gift from Richard Burton Richard didn't have that kind of money so and and from what I heard being with them it sounded like Elizabeth bought these things I may be telling tales out of school but I'm pretty sure that he had nowhere near that kind of money I mean they said that was a fortune then you never knew actually he was buying or she was buying in reality because probably the game was that he had to buy for her but sometimes she was very forceful maybe at the end she was buying it but apparently was a gift by the early 70s Elizabeth was no longer making movies that mattered and the conspicuous consumption of their lives was veering on the decadent in 1971 Elizabeth and Richard went to the Baron de Rothschild grand extravaganza the Proust ball as well as being bedecked in jewels Elizabeth asked the designer Valentino to make her a suitably attention-grabbing ballgown the dress was sensational when she arrived at their child ball she was amazing publicly they were magnificent but privately the drinking was getting heavier and the rounds were more ferocious she fights sometimes very very strongly very very strongly she sigh sigh anyway oh my god one day she said this would give a little land for Richard because his this birthday I say ok ok let's come for lunch and we sit at the table for lunch and Richard he was drinking quite a bit and at a certain point I was seated in the middle with Elizabeth here and Richard there they start to fight to him no idea I want to go under the table you are drunk Chadda penalty phase and one evening I took her out because she was not in good mood and Ricardo was there and she was crying during dinner she was crying crying crying I said it's a bet they were too so we were out in few minutes and you have your eyes and they are already bunking you know she start to take the powder puff and to squeeze it under their eyes and I have to tell you in Alphen hour she was perfect Faye's the photographer's eventually the strain became too much and after 10 years of marriage they split usually only presidents and heads of state draw huge crowds of reporters but today at new york's regency hotel the word was out liz taylor was leaving town following her breakup with richard burton finally in the late afternoon she left the hotel and this is the mob scene that greeted her Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton divorced in 1974 but despite the fights the passion still lingered and they married again in 1975 [Music] which were offered to Miss Taylor in 1964 and 1975 there to weddings became the stuff of legend and their accompanying wedding the wings commander prized but this second marriage didn't last and they divorced again a year later in 1976 next up in that same year husband number six aspiring US Senator John Warner whose electoral chances were not harmed by his glamorous new wife he won his Senate seat she got bored with Washington put on weight and divorced him in 1982 and it all became too much by 1983 she checked into the Betty Ford Clinic she went into rehab for alcohol and painkiller addiction and came out fighting I think she was always very honest very open one of the first people to go into rehab very publicly and come out from Betty Ford and say yes I needed help I think people incredibly admired that while married to Warner she had seen how to operate politically when her lifelong friend Rock Hudson who had starred with her in the movie giant died of AIDS she was the first major Hollywood star to go public and campaign against discrimination AIDS knows no produce it strikes men women children and we must strike back and with your help we will and we will win thank you work that she did was phenomenal she faced everybody and said I don't care you know really what your opinion is your opinion has nothing to do with him die and she really did step up the plate she hacked you she could have just got terrible I'm gone you know to the South of France another man was about to enter her life one who understood well her need for presence [Music] lot number 252 252 the diamond and gold bow broach also a gift from Michael Jackson lot 252 we have $10,000 to start at ten thousand Elizabeth Taylor's new best friend Michael Jackson understood her love of gifts one of his to her was his signature bowtie in diamonds you know they love giving each other things the three of us did it wasn't just a frivolous they're not saying necessarily with diamonds and things like that there are lots of other things to just show a bit so for yourself idol 62 for 75,000 thank you growing up as child stars they shared an emotional bond he needed a friend and I think she recognized the loneliness in him because she gone through it and she let him know that that's what they had in common and that he wasn't alone Elizabeth went into rehab for a second time in 1988 there she met 36 year old construction worker Larry for 10 ski 20 years her junior three years later Michael Jackson hosted the bash for wedding number eight at his famous ranch Neverland Valentino was asked to design her wedding dress guests waited for hours eventually Valentina was begged to go and find the absent bride I found this huge wardrobe it was the bedroom of Michael Jackson and I see this huge bed in the middle and in one side just across the big bed it tiny tiny bed I think he was sleeping there but not in the big bed and in the two side of the room two small door in one was Michael almost in the dark all dressed up with silver shoes in silver and you say ah hi Michael because I met him before and I said where is Elizabeth in the other bath so I went in the other bath finally she was dressed and finally she arrived to the public and she was really extraordinary she divorced for ten ski five years later and in the meantime wearing the Mike Todd earrings had launched a line of perfumes one of the most successful being white diamonds she earned more money from her perfumes than all her movies put together [Music] George playing around with him mixing and I don't know it was just time to do something new Elizabeth was incredibly shrewd in in realizing that she could leverage her fame and become a real brand which which she is and will continue to be even now after her death a few years before she died Elizabeth asked Christie's to make an inventory of her precious jewels the trays and trays and trays covered by velvet waiting for us she kept sat next to us and spent the next two days with us looking at every jewel telling us the story of a jewel where it came from who gave it to her she definitely associated pieces of jewelry with people and if you look at the boxes at the fitted case for his jewel you will see that she herself prepared little tags where she would write the name of the person who had given it to her Mike Todd Richard Burton Michael Jackson it is clear to me that every jewel was definitely associated with not only a person but the particular movie she did or a particular period of her life so I suppose it's a film of our life which was made of those fabulous jewels Elizabeth Taylor died on March 23rd 2011 aged 79 at every stage of her life she seemed to have an overpowering need for gifts she was like a little girl we'd advised that she took when she wants to ask something please give me a little dress to you Elizabeth she was I mean like a little girl she asked for against her was too cool I mean was like this all the producers she worked with were regular jewelry donors ray I don't think I don't think I've had my Prezi yet simple as that and she did she always asked for a gift I know that she said so and then you can remember when you're not getting the jobs how popular you were when when you look at all the gifts that you got from the movies that you were doing then it said because you're a woman you're you're walking jewelry store I have always thought that if a woman is beautiful she doesn't needed anything but her beauty I'm not sure that it could be painted as some kind of compensating mechanism for something lacking in her life quite the opposite I think for Elizabeth it was the icing on the cake she always wanted more and she got it the auction of her jewelry made over a hundred and thirty five million dollars by far the largest figure ever achieved for a jewelry collection she was a true movie star unheard raw was in her life her weddings her passionate love affairs I mean she was a naughty girl and it was fabulous she did what she wanted to do she got the horse a different angle to 911 with newly released recordings of military and air traffic control conversations

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Channel: Oh Salome!

Views: 303,903

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Length: 73min 10sec (4390 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2017

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