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.



World War II Sergeant Whose Plane Was Shot Down over Germany Honored with Reburial in California

This 1944 photo provided by Honoring Our Fallen shows WWII veteran US Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Donald V. Banta from Los Angeles. Banta, 21, was killed in action in early 1944 when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Gotha, Germany. On Thursday, July 25, 2024 community members lined the roads to honor Banta as he was brought from Ontario International Airport in southern California to a burial home. (Honoring Our Fallen via AP)
This 1944 photo provided by Honoring Our Fallen shows WWII veteran US Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Donald V. Banta from Los Angeles. Banta, 21, was killed in action in early 1944 when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Gotha, Germany. On Thursday, July 25, 2024 community members lined the roads to honor Banta as he was brought from Ontario International Airport in southern California to a burial home. (Honoring Our Fallen via AP)
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World War II Sergeant Whose Plane Was Shot Down over Germany Honored with Reburial in California

This 1944 photo provided by Honoring Our Fallen shows WWII veteran US Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Donald V. Banta from Los Angeles. Banta, 21, was killed in action in early 1944 when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Gotha, Germany. On Thursday, July 25, 2024 community members lined the roads to honor Banta as he was brought from Ontario International Airport in southern California to a burial home. (Honoring Our Fallen via AP)
This 1944 photo provided by Honoring Our Fallen shows WWII veteran US Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Donald V. Banta from Los Angeles. Banta, 21, was killed in action in early 1944 when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Gotha, Germany. On Thursday, July 25, 2024 community members lined the roads to honor Banta as he was brought from Ontario International Airport in southern California to a burial home. (Honoring Our Fallen via AP)

After 80 years, a World War II sergeant killed in Germany has returned home to California.

On Thursday, community members lined the roads to honor US Army Air Force Tech. Sgt. Donald V. Banta as he was brought from Ontario International Airport to a burial home in Riverside, California, The AP reported.

Banta, 21, was killed in action in early 1944 when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Gotha, Germany, according to Honoring Our Fallen, an organization that provides support to families of fallen military and first responders.

One of the surviving crewmembers saw the plane was on fire, then fell in a steep dive before exploding on the ground. After the crash, German troops buried the remains of one soldier at a local cemetery, while the other six crewmembers, including Banta, were unaccounted for.

Banta was married and had four sisters and a brother. He joined the military because of his older brother Floyd Jack Banta, who searched for Donald Banta his whole life but passed away before he was found.

Donald Banta's niece was present at the planeside honors ceremony at the Ontario airport coordinated by Honoring Our Fallen.

The remains from the plane crash were initially recovered in 1952, but they could not be identified at the time and were buried in Belgium. Banta was accounted for Sept. 26, 2023, following efforts by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency within the US Department of Defense and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.