Barbara’s Hutton Necklace

The Hutton-Mdivani Jadeite Necklace is sometimes known as the world's most renowned necklace. Barbara Hutton received the magnificent item as a wedding gift from her father in 1933. The gem had a Cartier clasp at the time, which was set with a single navette-cut diamond. Barbara had it replaced with the yellow gold clasp set with caliber-cut rubies and baguette-cut diamonds that is currently on the necklace a year later.

The Cartier Collection now owns the necklace, which is made up of 27 graded jadeite beads with an 18k yellow gold clasp set with rubies and diamonds. It's beautiful on its own, but when you consider that such high-quality jade can seldom yield beads larger than 10mm in diameter due to the paucity of jadeite boulders, its rarity becomes even more apparent. The necklace's beads are all above 15mm in diameter and were all carved from the same boulder. That explains its most recent realized auction price of $27.4 million dollars in 2014.

Price: $27.4 million