Marie Antoinette: French Queen's diamond bracelets sold for £5.8m

These bracelets are going on auction soon, but if you want them you'll need to save up your pocket money for a LONG time!

Two diamond bracelets once owned by the former queen of France, Marie Antoinette, have sold at auction for more than $8 million (£5.8 million).

As the wife of King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette ruled France from 1774 until 1793, when she was executed during the French Revolution.

The auction took place on 9 November in Geneva, which is a city in Switzerland.

The jewellery was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder.

The bracelets are made of three strings of diamonds and a large barrette clasp (a fastener that looks like a bar) with an impressive 112 diamonds in total!

Head of British auction house Christie's jewellery department in Geneva, Max Fawcett said the historical items were extremely rare.

"Really, they have never left royal hands, this is a piece of French history that has remained within those families for more than 200 years and again, that is exceptionally rare to find, and especially jewels of such great quality," he added.

The bracelets were previously owned by a European royal family

A portrait made in 1785 shows Marie Antoinette wearing the bracelets. The painting is now on show at the National Museum in Sweden's capital city, Stockholm.

This isn't the first time Marie Antoinette's jewellery has been sold at auction. In 2018, a pearl and diamond pendant was sold by a different auction house called Sotheby's.

It went for $36m (£28m), which Sotheby's described at the time as record-breaking.