Diamond Necklace Possibly Linked to Marie Antoinette’s Demise up for Auction

GENEVA—A diamond-studded necklace thought to be involved in a scandal that led to the eventual downfall of the last queen of France, Marie Antoinette, is being sold in Geneva next week. The Georgian-era piece containing 300 carats of diamonds being sold by an Asian private collector in Geneva on Nov. 13 is valued at around 2 million Swiss francs ($2.29 million), Sotheby’s said, although it may fetch much more. The piece was at the center of a scandal in the 1780s known as the ‘Diamond Necklace Affair’ in which a hard-up noblewoman named Jeanne de la Motte pretended to be the French queen and acquired the necklace in her name without payment....