Liz Taylor's jewelry sells for $116 million at Christie's

Forbes reported that “La Peregrina,” the 16th Century pearl on a necklace designed by Cartier for Taylor, sold for $11.8 million, setting the world record for a pearl jewel. The pre-auction estimate was $2 million to $3 million.La Peregrina upstaged The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, a 33.19-carat Asscher-cut D color potentially flawless diamond set on a ring that Taylor wore nearly everyday, sold for $8.8 million, well above its $2.5 million to $3.5 million estimate.

Taylor Burton diamond

The huge rock was not Taylor's biggest diamond. That distinction belonged to the Taylor Burton Diamond, a pear-shaped 69.4-carat pear shaped, D-color, Interally Flawless diamond, cut from a 240-caret stone and bought for her in 1969 by Richard Burton who paid $1,050,000 for it over a hotel bar pay phone into which he had to keep dropping quarters during the auction. In 1978, Elizabeth Taylor sold the stone to help build a hospital in Botswana, Africa.