CANVASES, CARATS AND CURIOSITIES

Kate Florence Phillips, 19, and Henry Samuel Morley, 40, traveled aboard the Titanic as "Mr. and Mrs. Marshall" after Henry sold two of his confectionery shops to fund their elopement. Phillips had worked as a clerk in Morley’s shop, and the two were fleeing together, abandoning Morley’s wife and child, to begin a new life in America. Morley had commissioned a diamond-encrusted sapphire necklace in Birmingham's jewellery quarter, known as L'Amour de la Mer, which he fastened around Kate's neck before placing her in a lifeboat. Kate survived and Henry perished.

How Much Would Rose’s Necklace Be Worth Now?

The necklace in Cameron’s movie, unlike the more demure real-life example, would have been purchased by a Gilded Age tycoon, who would have had access to the most exclusive and expensive gems in the world. How much would it have been worth? Dealing in speculative fiction is always a gamble, but let’s try.

The singular force of Titanic provenance elevates even modest objects into artifacts of exceptional significance. In November 2025, an 18-carat Jules Jurgensen pocket watch owned by Isidor Straus achieved £1.78 million ($2.32 million), the highest price ever recorded for any Titanic object. By contrast, a comparable Jules Jurgensen watch from the same period would bring roughly $130,000–150,000, a 4,540 percent increase driven entirely by its association with the disaster.
Applying that same premium to a deep blue diamond of the type represented by Rose’s fictional stone—valued at $4,036,686 for similar saturation per carat and scaled to its reported 56 carats—the theoretical figure expands to an astonishing $10.5 billion.

Ten and a half billion is a pretty penny for someone, albeit fictional Rose, to throw in the ocean to commemorate the death of her love, Jack. Thankfully, we can all rest assured that this never happened. Following the film's success, however, Asprey & Garrard created a 171-carat Ceylon sapphire version surrounded by 103 diamonds, which sold for $2.2 million at a charity auction and was worn by Celine Dion at the 1998 Oscars. So there is, in some way, the Heart of the Ocean, alive and well in someone's personal collection.

M.S. Rau Example:

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Audrey Hepburn’s opening scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s remains one of cinema’s most iconic images. At dawn on Fifth Avenue, Hepburn steps from a taxi in a sleek black Givenchy gown, with ropes of pearls glinting at her throat as she gazes into Tiffany’s window and eats her croissant.

What Jewelry was Audrey Hepburn Wearing?

This image had an indelible impact on fashion and popular culture, solidifying Hepburn’s status as a style icon and forever linking the little black dress with luminous pearls. The jewelry in this scene also underscores Holly Golightly’s inner world.
Hepburn wears an exceptional five-strand pearl necklace designed by French jeweler Roger Scemama, a craftsman renowned for collaborating with haute couture houses like Givenchy. This multi-layered necklace—five lustrous strands gathered by a glittering crystal-and-diamond rosette clasp—was devised to drape elegantly down Hepburn’s back, accentuating the gown’s dramatic backless design

The History of the Tiffany Diamond

Equally illustrious is the Tiffany Diamond’s connection to Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In one memorable scene, a slow pan inside Tiffany & Co. reveals the jewelry salon’s prize attraction—the 128.54-carat Tiffany Yellow Diamond—sparkling from within a display case, a subtle nod to the film’s title. Hepburn herself was later photographed wearing this extraordinary gem for the film’s publicity, the canary diamond set in Jean Schlumberger’s Ribbon Rosette necklace; she thus became only the second person ever to don the Tiffany Diamond. The stone, among the largest fancy yellow diamonds in the world, has never been sold and remains a centerpiece of Tiffany’s collection with an estimated value upward of $30 million.

M.S. Rau Example:

In the climactic gala scene of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kate Hudson's character commands attention wearing the extraordinary Isadora Diamond necklace—an 84-carat fancy yellow diamond suspended from a wreath of white diamonds. This Harry Winston creation, named after modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan, serves as both a pivotal plot device and symbol of luxury in the film's finale.

The necklace's off-screen provenance proves equally compelling. Unlike typical film productions that use replicas, Harry Winston loaned the actual $5-6 million piece for filming, requiring constant security—the guards visible on camera were genuine Winston personnel who locked away the necklace after each take. Following its cinematic debut, the Isadora Diamond continued to take center stage in pop culture. Whoopi Goldberg wore it to the Academy Awards before its eventual sale to a private collector for approximately $5 million.

M.S. Rau Example:

Ocean’s 8 (2018)

In the film Ocean’s 8, a singular piece of high jewelry serves as the narrative linchpin: the Cartier Jeanne Toussaint diamond necklace, draped around Anne Hathaway’s neck as the Met Gala heist’s coveted prize. This magnificent jewel is a fictionalized version of a real treasure from Cartier’s own history.

The Real Ocean’s 8 Necklace

The original Toussaint necklace was commissioned in 1931 by Maharaja Sir Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar and designed by Jacques Cartier himself. He lauded it as “the finest cascade of coloured diamonds in the world,” anchored by the famed 136.25-carat Queen of Holland diamond and embellished with additional pink, blue and green diamonds amid a double row of white diamonds. Named in honor of Jeanne Toussaint—Cartier’s influential creative director of the 1930s—the necklace epitomized the opulence of Maharaja patronage and the zenith of Art Deco design. This historic treasure was later dismantled and its stones dispersed.

Anne Hathaway’s Version of the Cartier Necklace

For Ocean’s 8, Cartier revived the Toussaint necklace from archival designs and completed an exquisite replica in just eight weeks at its Paris high-jewelry workshop. Because the original necklace was sized for a Maharaja, the new version was reduced by roughly 15–20% to fit Anne Hathaway elegantly. Cartier’s master jewellers recreated the piece in white gold, substituting the original’s multicolored diamonds with perfectly cut zirconium oxide crystals, and applied meticulous finishing to ensure no imperfection would be visible—even in close-up shots.

The original necklace, as designed in 1931, totaled approximately 500 carats. While the film’s replica is not for sale, the Toussaint necklace was said to be worth $150 million on screen—enough to finance a handsome payday for Hollywood’s most beloved thieves.

M.S. Rau Example:

Hollywood and Jewels

The allure of historic jewels lies not only in their value but in the extraordinary stories they carry. Worn by some of history’s most powerful figures, these treasures are steeped in intrigue, desire, and legacy. Perhaps that’s why the thrill of a heist—real or imagined—remains so irresistible.

When the 2025 Louvre jewelry theft unfolded, many described it as something straight out of a film. In some ways, it was. It's almost inconceivable that jewels of such rarity could vanish outside the realm of cinematic fiction. But remarkable jewels often come with remarkable narratives—and in the end, isn’t that exactly what Hollywood is after?

Works Cited:

Davidson, Terry. “Real ‘Titanic’ Necklace to Benefit Diana’s Trust: Movie’s Paste Necklace Recreated with Real Jewels.”

Interview by Diane Sawyer. March 11, 1998. Archived August 1, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.

“The Most Famous Dresses Ever.” Glamour, April 2007. Archived March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 16, 2011.

Tiffany & Co. “The Tiffany Diamond.” https://www.tiffany.com/high-jewelry/the-tiffany-diamond.html.

Van Der Voort, Jane. “Heart of the Matter.” The Toronto Sun, February 11, 2001.

“How Cartier Recreated a Legendary Necklace for Ocean’s 8.” Vogue. https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/oceans-8-cartier-heist-necklace-anne-hathaway