The Luxurious Jewels Of The Wives Of Agha Khan.

The Luxurious Jewels of the Wives of Aga Khan In 1949, armed bandits ambushed a princess and her husband outside a villa in Khan and stole jewellery worth almost a million dollars. That princess kept collecting anyway. Decades later, another wife in the same family walked away from her marriage with a diamond so rare a dealer paid half a million dollars per carat just to own it. This is what the Aga Khan's wives actually wore, where they lived, and where it all ended up. Begum Omhabibe Aga Khan Born Yvonne La Bruce, daughter of a tram conductor and a dressmaker, she won the Miss France crown before becoming social secretary to Aga Khan III. In 1944, she became his wife. He trusted her enough to consult her on matters tied to his spiritual authority over millions of followers. Her jewellery carried the same energy – quiet, deliberate, never loud. Diamond Fringe Necklace Likely made by Harry Winston in the early 1950s, built from cushion cut, brilliant cut, and baguette diamonds in a cascading line. She wore it at Khan in 1955 and 1957, at a premiere at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, and at balls across London and New York. In the mid to late 1960s, she had it dismantled and reset with marquees and brilliant diamonds. The reworked piece made its final known appearance at a ball at Versailles in 1973, 16 years after her husband's death. Pearl and Diamond Fringe Necklace A cascade of white and yellow diamonds ending in a fringe of cultured pearls. After her death, a jeweller used this exact piece as the blueprint to craft matching earrings and a bracelet for another woman in the family, a commission dated and invoiced in 2001, a year after the bagoum had already passed. Bulgari Turquoise Necklace Acquired the same year her husband died in 1957, this Bulgari set paired turquoise with diamonds in a necklace and bracelet, later joined by ear clips from a separate jeweller. She wore it at the legendary My Fair Lady ball in the Bois de Boulogne in 1965, the turquoise woven into her hairstyle rather than simply worn around her neck. Diamond Bracelet Tiara Two rows of cushion-cut diamonds with a row of baguettes, worn both as a bracelet and, in portraits from the 1940s, as a tiara. In 1949, she and the Aga Khan left their villa in Cannes for the airport in Nice when armed bandits ambushed them and stole jewellery valued between $450,000 and $800,000. The Aga Khan reportedly called after the fleeing robbers, Here you are gentlemen, you have forgotten something and handed them a tip. Some pieces were recovered. She never wore them again and simply commissioned new ones for the next 50 years. Villa Yakimor She personally designed the couple's villa in La Canne, naming it Yakimor, a blend of her husband's nickname for her, Yaki, and the French word for love. It became her home base for decades and the site of a bronze statue raised in her The Aswan Winter Palace Overlooking the Nile near Aswan stood the family's white villa, later known as Nur al-Salam, where Aga Khan III spent his winters. He chose the site as his burial ground, and after his death the Begum personally oversaw construction of his pink granite mausoleum on the hill above it, completed in 16 months. She lived there part of each year for the rest of her life, and every single day for four decades, a red rose was placed on his tomb. When she travelled and no roses could be found locally, she reportedly had them flown in from Paris by private jet rather than skip the ritual even once. The Diamond Weighing Two years after their wedding, Aga Khan III celebrated his diamond jubilee as spiritual leader. By being weighed against his own body weight in diamonds, the gems then distributed to his followers as an act of display. It remains one of the most extreme single gestures of wealth in 20th century royal history, and it happened while Om Habibeh sat beside him as his wife. After her death in 2000, 19 lots from her jewellery collection sold at Sotheby's Geneva for $4.5 million, split between the Aga Khan Foundation, the Belarus Foundation, and her own Om Habibeh Foundation, which she had founded in 1991 to fund a dialysis centre and several schools in Aswan. Several pieces from that sale have never surfaced publicly since. The same restraint that shaped her jewellery shaped her mourning. Nothing showy, everything deliberate. Begum Salima Aga Khan Born Sarah Croker Poole, a British model who converted to Islam before marrying Prince Karim Aga Khan IV in 1969. They married in his Paris mansion on the Ile de la Cité in the shadow of Notre Dame. For 25 years she split her time between the Riviera Sardinia and St Moritz, a fixture of what the press called the jet set. The marriage produced three children and, by Christie's own account, one of the most extravagant jewellery collections ever assembled by a single woman. Where the first Begum chose restraint, this one chose scale. Every stone she wore was built to be seen from across a room. The Begum Blue A 13.78 carat heart-shaped fancy deep blue diamond, one of the largest of its kind on record, set as the centrepiece of a necklace ringed by 41 heart-shaped colourless diamonds. At auction it sold for $7.72 million, nearly half a million dollars per carat, to London dealer Lawrence Graff, who called it unique and refused to apologise for the price. Van Cleef & Arpels Transformable Necklace Created in 1971 with an Indian design influence, this piece held 745 diamonds, totalling 52 carats, and 44 carved emeralds totalling 478 carats. The gadrooned emeralds formed stylised flowers, each ringed by a single or double row of diamonds, worn as voluminous beads around the neck. The design nodded to the 18th century European and the tassel jewellery popular in the 1920s. It could be worn whole as a necklace, then split apart on hidden gold rails into two bracelets, and a pendant clip depending on the night. Emerald Suite A pair of Harry Winston earrings from 1974, set with cabochon emeralds of 11.33 and 11.94 carats, supporting detachable drops of 21.64 and 22.29 carats, paired with a 1970s Cartier necklace, holding two drop-shaped emeralds over 50 carats each plus five more cabochon emeralds. She wore the full set at Princess Caroline of Monaco's wedding ball in 1978. Aiglemont Their main residence sat on 1,200 hectares near Chantilly, France, a château estate with its own lakes, woodland, stables and over 100 horseboxes, doubling as the headquarters for her husband's global development network. It was less a house than a private compound, guarded closely enough that even visiting community leaders described the security as among the tightest they had ever seen. Every subsequent wife in this story would eventually pass through the same gates. Le Kerbiat Costa Smeralda Her husband personally furnished this Sardinian villa in Porto Cervo with traditional Sardinian textiles and antique chests, part of the exclusive coastal resort he built from raw coastline into a playground for royalty, film stars and oil money. The couple's own wedding reception gift from resort staff was a hand-woven Sardinian tapestry. The Shergar Yacht During their marriage, the Aga Khan commissioned a 151-foot yacht, designed by the Ferrari stylist Pininfarina, capable of 40 knots and named after his Derby-winning racehorse. It cost roughly £12 million and could host about a dozen guests in the kind of accommodation usually reserved for heads of state, another marker of the world Begum Salema moved through for two and a half decades. When the marriage ended, the Aga Khan took her to court to stop the sale of her jewellery, backed by pressure from the Ismaili community who wanted family pieces kept close. A Geneva court ruled largely in her favour but forced her to return 23 pieces worth roughly $200,000, which the Aga Khan bought back himself. The rest sold at Christie's in 1995 for $27.3 million against an estimate of $15 million, the largest total the house had handled for a single collection at that point. Buyers came from across the Middle East and the Gulf, some watching quietly, others bidding without hesitation and driving prices well past estimate. A second sale in 2019 returned more pieces to market. The emerald necklace and earrings reportedly went unsold and their current location is unknown. Begum Inara Aga Khan Born Gabriele Zulainingen, a German princess who married Aga Khan IV in 1998 and moved into the same Aglamon estate that had once belonged to his first wife. The marriage lasted six years before their separation in 2004, formally ending in divorce a decade later after the Begum accused her husband of adultery. After the split, she built a life around philanthropy, funding microloan and development projects in countries including Pakistan, Thailand and Mongolia, and founding a foundation in 2004 to fight HIV and AIDS. By 2007, the German magazine had named her the country's most influential public figure. Where the other two wives built or wore their own legacy, she inherited one, carrying stones that had already lived full lives before they reached her. Natural Pearl Necklace Pearls ranging from just under 5 to just over 11 millimetres, fitted with an old cut diamond bar clasp that let it convert between a two-strand and three-strand piece depending on the occasion. The Pole Diamond A Cartier ring set with a rectangular cut, decolour VVS1 diamond weighing 36.09 carats, flanked by tapered baguettes. A stone of that clarity and size takes years to source in the rough. Cartier Emerald Suite A platinum necklace centred on a detachable cushion, cut emerald pendant of nearly 40 carats, paired with a fringe of graduated Colombian emerald beads, dropping into diamond briolettes and pearls, completed with a matching bracelet and earrings. Violin Brooch Watch A Cartier brooch shaped like a violin, its body carved from Calibre cut rubies, its strings traced in pavé diamonds, opening to reveal a hidden working watch face. Inherited Van Cleef and Arpels Fringe Set A cultured pearl and diamond fringe necklace with matching bangle and earrings, originally belonging to Begum Omhabiba, the very first wife in this story. It surfaced at the 2000 Sotheby's sale, then reappeared on Begum Inara at a charity gala at Versailles in February 2004, months before her own marriage collapsed. Inherited Cartier and Robert Puget Brooches A vintage Cartier frog brooch and a ruby emerald and diamond flower brooch by Robert Puget, both originally owned by Begum Omhabiba, Aga Khan III, passed down through the family before reaching her. In April 2016, 46 lots from her collection sold at Christie's Geneva, spanning Cartier, Boucheron, Van Cleef and Arpels, and Tiffany and Cumberall. The inherited pearl and diamond suite alone sold for 293,000 Swiss francs, changing hands one final time into a collection none of these women will ever see again.