Seeing a major cache of heirloom royal jewelry advertised for sale in an upcoming auction is always a breathtaking moment—and even more so when you learn that the family is perhaps not entirely happy with the sale. Antique jewelry from the collection of the King of Sweden’s late sister is due to be sold in Switzerland next month, with the Bernadottes reportedly divided over the decision to part with the family pieces.
Princess Birgitta, the second daughter of Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla of Sweden, died at the age of 87 in December 2024. She was mourned by her surviving siblings, King Carl XVI Gustaf and his sisters, Princess Margareta, Princess Désirée (who has also since passed away), and Princess Christina, as well as her children and grandchildren.
Princess Birgitta was the only one of the King of Sweden’s sisters to marry a fellow royal. She wed Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern, a member of the royal family that once ruled Germany and Romania, in 1960. During her marriage she had access to jewels from the collection of her husband’s family, and when her mother died in 1972, she inherited several important pieces of jewelry from her as well.
Now, Birgitta’s descendants have decided to sell several pieces of jewelry from their late mother’s collection. Among these are jewels that belonged to Princess Sibylla, as well as a necklace that was once worn by Sibylla’s mother-in-law, Princess Margaret of Connaught. The sale is due to take place at Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 11.
The most important suite of jewelry being offered for sale is this set of diamond and sapphire jewels. The set was originally a single necklace, with two of the pendants later removed and reconfigured so they could be worn as earrings. The remaining pendants can be removed from the necklace as well, with the central pendant able to be worn separately as a brooch. “By tradition,” Sotheby’s tells us, the cabochon sapphires “belonged to Dagmar of Denmark,” who is better known to history as Empress Marie Feodorovna, mother of Russia’s last tsar.
By 1932, the sapphires had been set in this necklace, which was given as a wedding present to Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on her marriage to Prince Gustaf Adolf, who was expected one day to reign as King of Sweden. Sibylla was a daughter of the soon-to-be-disgraced Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a grandson of Queen Victoria.
The necklace was a gift to Sibylla from a cousin, Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The deposed Bulgarian ruler had been born Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He had settled in Coburg, living in glittering exile, after abdicating in the wake of World War I. Ferdinand loved jewelry, and the wedding offered him the chance to present his cousin with a sparkling gift that emphasized family ties on her journey to become Queen of Sweden.
But, sadly, Sibylla never made it to the throne. Her husband died in a plane crash in 1947, leaving her with five young children, including an infant son. He has reigned as King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden for more than five decades, and the entire family keeps Sibylla’s memory at the forefront. Queen Silvia and her daughters, as well as Princess Christina, often wear jewelry linked to Sibylla (including the tiara pictured above) for gala occasions today.
As a widowed princess, Sibylla continued to have a place of prominence at the Bernadotte court, and she wore her wedding sapphires regularly until her own passing in 1972. She also loaned the necklace regularly to her daughters. Here, Princess Margaretha wears the sapphire necklace without its pendants at the Nobel Prize ceremony in 1957.
In this picture, taken at the Nobel banquet in 1967, Princess Christina wears the family’s Four Button Tiara with three of the sapphire necklace’s pendants. She wears two of the pendants as earrings and uses the largest as a brooch to secure her Seraphim sash.
The daughter who inherited the necklace outright from her mother was Princess Birgitta, the second eldest of the four sisters. Birgitta was the goddaughter of Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, the royal cousin who originally gave the sapphires to Sibylla.
Birgitta wears the necklace and earrings here as she attends a state banquet in Austria alongside her sister-in-law, Queen Silvia, in 1979. Birgitta’s tiara is a repurposed bracelet that also belonged to Princess Sibylla. Queen Silvia, notably, makes an early appearance here in the rediscovered cut-steel parure.
In her later decades, Princess Birgitta still wore Sibylla’s sapphires on occasion. Here, she pairs the necklace with Sibylla’s favorite diadem, the Connaught Diamond Tiara, during the wedding celebrations for Princess Madeleine and Christopher O’Neill in the spring of 2013.
More of Sibylla’s jewelry is also scheduled to be sold in the November 11 auction. This fabulous brooch features a cushion-shaped Padparadscha sapphire set in a bed of diamond flowers. Sotheby’s states that the brooch was made around 1910.
You’ll be able to spot the brooch in this portrait of Princess Sibylla holding her youngest daughter, Princess Christina, in 1943. The baby’s three elder sisters are gathered around their mother in the picture. Princess Birgitta, who later inherited the brooch, is standing over Sibylla’s left shoulder.
Sotheby’s is also selling this four-row bracelet of cultured pearls. Its detachable emerald and diamond clasp, which can be worn as a brooch, was made in the middle of the nineteenth-century. It was also bequeathed by Princess Sibylla to Princess Birgitta in 1972.
Another diamond bracelet from Princess Sibylla’s collection is included in the sale as well. Sotheby’s explains that the jewel is set with “with old European, single- and brilliant-cut diamonds.” The three central links in the bracelet, they note, date to the 1930s, with the remaining links added later.
A trio of rings from Sibylla’s collection are also included in the upcoming sale. This one features “a cushion-shaped emerald weighing 7.58 carats” flanked by old mine-cut diamonds.
Also being sold together in a single lot are Sibylla’s cabochon emerald and sapphire toi et moi ring and a band featuring diamonds and sapphires in kite and triangle cuts.
After the sapphires, perhaps the most important item included in the sale of Birgitta’s jewels is this seed pearl and diamond necklace. It was a gift to Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden from her parents-in-law, King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria of Sweden, to celebrate the birth of her fourth child, Prince Bertil, in 1912. Sotheby’s writes that Bertil “in turn gifted the necklace to his niece Princess Birgitta of Sweden as a christening present in 1937.”
The news of the forthcoming sale at Sotheby’s has been received with significantly raised eyebrows in Sweden. The Bernadottes have been known to part with jewels occasionally in the past, but most of the transactions have been private ones within the family. A sale at this level seems to be without precedent.
The Swedish journalist Herman Lindqvist told Svensk Damtidning, “I think it is inappropriate to sell such items. It is something that should be preserved within the family. Then they can of course do whatever they want with their heirlooms, but I don’t think it is appropriate or tasteful to do so. Personal valuables that are tied to personal memories should not be sold in that way. Then it can be done more discreetly and privately.”
Johan T. Lindwall, the editor-in-chief of Svensk Damtidning, has weighed in as well: “The King is so conservative that this goes completely against his values. Selling his mother’s jewelry at auction goes against everything the King stands for. I don’t think it’s out of the question that the King himself will buy back his mother’s jewelry. It’s rather very likely as they have great sentimental value for the King.”
King Carl XVI Gustaf, says the magazine, is said to have not received advanced warning about the sale, though he certainly remains in touch with Birgitta’s three children. When reached for comment about the auction, Princess Christina reportedly declined to share her thoughts.
That’s it for me here on this final October Friday, but there’s more jewelry goodness to come over the weekend. With opal season drawing to a close, I’ll be sharing the fascinating story over at Hidden Gems on Saturday of the Australian opal that almost made its way into the crown jewel collection. And on Sunday, my weekly free digest newsletter will land in your email inboxes. Have a safe and happy Halloween, everyone!
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