Diana's Necklace, With Its 178 Diamonds, Is Up for Sale

Good morning. Let's look at a pendant that was made just before Diana, Princess Of Wales, died. The necklace will be sold next month in New York. We will also examine a survey which shows that one out of four New Yorkers has lost someone close to them during the early stages of the pandemic.

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The preparations in London for the coronation King Charles III have been completed. Tomorrow morning, the ceremony will begin at 6 am Eastern time.

New York is just getting started with the preparations to sell a diamond and pearl necklace, as well as a pair earrings. The necklace has only been worn once. The earrings were never worn -- at least by Diana, Princess Wales, the first wife of the new king.

Diana and the 178 South Sea pearls and 138 diamonds that made up the necklace were endlessly photographed when she wore them to see a ballet performance of 'Swan Lake" in London, on June 3, 1997. The necklace was worn by Diana in June 1997, nearly a full year after her and Charles divorced.

It was her final appearance, and it was the only time that she wore this necklace in public. The necklace was stunning: each pearl measures just under half an inch, and the diamonds sparkled. Arlan Ettinger is the president of Guernsey’s auction house, based in New York. The necklace will be auctioned on June 27, at the Pierre Hotel. His presale estimate ranges from $5 million to $15,000 million.

Diana was asked to return the necklace by the crown jeweler shortly after the evening at the ballet. Ettinger explained that 'he hadn't completed the earrings' and in order to make the earrings match perfectly, he would need the necklace.

Three months after her death, the earrings were finished but not sent to her. Her companion Emad Mohamed Al-Fayed (also known as Dodi) was also killed in the car crash.

Ettinger stated that Diana, according to all accounts, didn't have any jewelry as a princess. If she was attending a royal event, Diana would wear jewelry that the crown had loaned her. Many people would have been happy to claim that she had her 15 minutes of fame, and then spend the rest of the day at quiet tea parties on the English countryside. She chose a different route' -- she designed the necklace and earrings by herself.

He said, 'She made these in materials she was supposed to love.' This was part of her, in a way that many other things she had were only temporary.

Ettinger stated that Diana had yet to pay for either the necklace or earrings and would not be doing so. He claimed that the earrings and necklace were a gift of al-Fayed. Ettinger stated that, with al-Fayed's death, the crown jeweler - the company now known as Garrard – had a dilemma: how to recover the cost. Ettinger stated that Diana's family authorized the sale. Ettinger said that Diana's family eventually authorized a sale.

He said the buyer was Jim McIngvale, a Houston furniture magnate known as Mattress Mack. Ettinger promoted them on "Today" and on "Oprah", and sold them at just under $1,000,000. He claimed that the buyer, Jim McIngvale (also known as Mattress Mack), is a Houston-based furniture magnate. He sold them to Ettinger in 2010, after saying, "It's the right time."

Ettinger also said that the current owner Mark Ginzburg was a Ukrainian developer of real estate. Ginzburg’s son Vladislav said that his father remembered the reaction in Kyiv to Diana's passing, when people formed a long line stretching a half mile from the British embassy.

Vladislav Ginzburg was 10 years old when Diana died. He said that the necklace and earrings were never meant to be worn. They were meant to be cherished and iconic.

Weather

Showers are likely on a day that is partly sunny and in the 60s. Expect scattered showers at night with temperatures dropping into the upper 40s.

The law is in effect until 18 May (Solemnity of the Ascension).

City living

Parking fines higher for the wealthy? In a bill proposed by the City Council to ease the affordability crisis in New York, minor offenses such as littering and idling may be subjected to a sliding scale of fines.

New Yorkers living in public housing are encouraged to submit business ideas that can be further developed and funded through a competition similar to 'Shark Tank.'

Subway choke death: New Yorkers demanded an arrest immediately after a man choked homeless man. Officials from the law enforcement agencies said that they are still trying to determine what happened and if the man is liable.

Early stages of pandemic: Quantifying the losses

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New city data puts the magnitude of loss in New York during the early stages. Nearly one-fourth of New Yorkers lost someone close to them in the first sixteen months of the Pandemic.

Data also revealed that nearly 900 000 New Yorkers had lost three close friends or relatives, a category which was open-ended.

Data was collected from interviews conducted in person with over 7,000 households across the city. The pandemic questions were added to a triannual survey whose primary purpose is to assess New Yorkers housing conditions.

Sharon Otterman, a colleague of mine, writes that these findings echo earlier studies that showed that Black and Hispanic New Yorkers were dying at disproportionately high rates from Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021. This was partly due to higher poverty rates and less access high-quality health care. People of color were the majority of essential workers that continued to work in the first 11 weeks of the shutdown. Schools and non-essential businesses were closed and residents were encouraged to stay at home.

A quarter of New Yorkers who were in close contact with someone died from the virus. However, the survey revealed that a third low-income workers essential to the economy also lost a loved one. Covid-19 caused the deaths of 16 percent of essential low-income workers, compared to 11 percent of New Yorkers.

Psychological scars continue to echo. Janeth Solis of the Bronx lost four family members in the first and a half years of the pandemic. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, her mother, stepgrandmother, and grandmother who all lived in a house together in Ridgewood Queens died one after another. Her mother-in law died in April of 2021.

Solis was unable to see her grandmother's cremains until this year. They had been sent to her native Colombia in June 2020.

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Dear Diary:

As I walked through SoHo for lunch, I stopped by a popular deli.

As the waiter came over with a pitcher filled with iced water, I asked for bottled drinking water.

"For some reason the water from my tap doesn't agree,' I replied.

He stared at me for some time before answering.