Kim Kardashian Buys Pendant Worn by Princess Diana

Reality TV personality Kim Kardashian attends an interview with Reuters at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in Yerevan, Armenia, October 8, 2019. Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS
Reality TV personality Kim Kardashian attends an interview with Reuters at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in Yerevan, Armenia, October 8, 2019. Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS
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Kim Kardashian Buys Pendant Worn by Princess Diana

Reality TV personality Kim Kardashian attends an interview with Reuters at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in Yerevan, Armenia, October 8, 2019. Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS
Reality TV personality Kim Kardashian attends an interview with Reuters at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) in Yerevan, Armenia, October 8, 2019. Vahram Baghdasaryan/Photolure via REUTERS

American reality television star and social media colossus Kim Kardashian has purchased the Attallah Cross, the amethyst and diamond pendant famously worn on several occasions by Princess Diana, according to the auction house Sotheby's. 

The piece, made in the 1920s by the British jeweler Garrard, sold for 163,800 pounds ($202,300) during the auction house's "Royal and Noble" sale in London on Wednesday.

The pendant -- which Diana notably wore to a 1987 charity gala -- fetched more than twice the pre-auction minimum estimate, with Sotheby's confirming it was bought by a representative on behalf of Kardashian.

"Jewelry owned or worn by the late Princess Diana very rarely comes on to the market, especially a piece such as the Attallah Cross, which is so colorful, bold and distinctive," AFP quoted Sotheby's Kristian Spofforth as saying before the sale.

"To some extent, this unusual pendant is symbolic of the princess's growing self-assurance in her sartorial and jewelry choices, at that particular moment in her life."

The pendant will not be the first piece of fashion history to cross paths with Kardashian.

Last year, the 42-year-old made headlines for attending the Met Gala in the very dress worn by Marilyn Monroe when she serenaded then-president John F Kennedy on his birthday in 1962.

Kardashian was initially accused of having damaged the screen legend's gown, but Los Angeles-based museum Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which owns the piece, denied the allegations.



Latest Tests Show Seine Water Quality Was Substandard When Paris Mayor Took a Dip

 Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Latest Tests Show Seine Water Quality Was Substandard When Paris Mayor Took a Dip

 Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Boats carrying members of delegations sail along the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Tests results released Friday showed the water quality in the River Seine was slightly below the standards needed to authorize swimming — just as the Paris Olympics start.

Heavy rain during the opening ceremony revived concerns over whether the long-polluted waterway will be clean enough to host swimming competitions, since water quality is deeply linked with the weather in the French capital.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a highly publicized dip last week in a bid to ease fears. The Seine will be used for marathon swimming and triathlon.

Daily water quality tests measure levels of fecal bacteria known as E. coli.

Tests by monitoring group Eau de Paris show that at the Bras Marie, E. coli levels were then above the safe limit of 900 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters determined by European rules on June 17, when the mayor took a dip.

The site reached a value of 985 on the day the mayor swam with Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet and the top government official for the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, joined her, along with swimmers from local swimming clubs.

At two other measuring points further downstream, the results were below the threshold.

The statement by Paris City Hall and the prefecture of the Paris region noted that water quality last week was in line with European rules six days out of seven on the site which is to host the Olympic swimming competitions.

It noted that "the flow of the Seine is highly unstable due to regular rainfall episodes and remains more than twice the usual flow in summer," explaining fluctuating test results.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century. Since 2015, organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.