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Princess Diana Finery Goes Under the Hammer

Princess Diana's 1987 Victor Edelstein magenta silk and lace evening dress is displayed during Julien's Auctions' press preview of "Princess Diana's Elegance & a Royal Collection", ahead of an exclusive private showing at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, California, June 25, 2024. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)
Princess Diana's 1987 Victor Edelstein magenta silk and lace evening dress is displayed during Julien's Auctions' press preview of "Princess Diana's Elegance & a Royal Collection", ahead of an exclusive private showing at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, California, June 25, 2024. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)
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Princess Diana Finery Goes Under the Hammer

Princess Diana's 1987 Victor Edelstein magenta silk and lace evening dress is displayed during Julien's Auctions' press preview of "Princess Diana's Elegance & a Royal Collection", ahead of an exclusive private showing at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, California, June 25, 2024. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)
Princess Diana's 1987 Victor Edelstein magenta silk and lace evening dress is displayed during Julien's Auctions' press preview of "Princess Diana's Elegance & a Royal Collection", ahead of an exclusive private showing at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills, California, June 25, 2024. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)

The biggest auction of Diana memorabilia since the late British princess sold dozens of outfits months before her death gets underway in California this week, featuring a midnight blue tulle dress and a flamenco-style lace-up number.

Nearly fifty pieces, including gowns, shoes, handbags and hats, will go under the hammer in Beverly Hills.

"Princess Diana's Elegance & A Royal Collection," brings together some of the style maven's favorite designers, including Victor Edelstein, Murray Arbeid and Catherine Walker.

Highlights include Arbeid's blue diamante ball gown, which the princess wore in 1986 to the London premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera," and a magenta lace dress by Edelstein.

Both pieces are expected to fetch up to $400,000, according to Julien's Auctions, which is running the sale.

"We are here celebrating Princess Diana's elegance," AFP quoted Gabriela Schwartz, of the auction house, as saying.

"We have some really standout pieces... that Diana wore with a lot of pride and (which are) really emblematic of her style.

Diana married Britain's now-King Charles in 1981 in an opulent ceremony watched by tens of millions around the globe.

The fairy tale soured over the following years and their tempestuous relationship became fodder for newspapers and gossip magazines, feeding a growing celebrity culture that exploded in the 1990s.

The couple had two children -- Princes William and Harry -- but divorced in 1996 in a tabloid frenzy and amid mutual infidelities.

Diana died in a car crash in Paris the following year as she and her lover tried to outrun paparazzi.

More than a quarter of a century on, the woman dubbed "The People's Princess" remains unmatched as a celebrity and style icon, whose allure continues to fascinate millions.

A dress worn by the princess that was auctioned last year fetched a staggering $1.14 million.

The collection, which has toured the globe for months, is expected to generate huge interest by the time bidding closes on Thursday.

As well as items of high couture, the sale will also include shoes by Salvatore Ferragamo, Kurt Geiger and Rayne, as well as letters in Diana's own handwriting, along with a number of other items connected to the British royal family.

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Researchers Document Huge Drop in African Elephants in a Half Century

Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
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Researchers Document Huge Drop in African Elephants in a Half Century

Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo
Elephants walk at the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/File Photo

African elephants are Earth's largest land animals, remarkable mammals that are very intelligent and highly social. They also are in peril. Fresh evidence of this comes in a study that documents alarming population declines at numerous sites across the continent over about a half century.

Researchers unveiled on Monday what they called the most comprehensive assessment of the status of the two African elephant species - the savanna elephant and forest elephant - using data on population surveys conducted at 475 sites in 37 countries from 1964 through 2016.

The savanna elephant populations fell by about 70% on average at the surveyed sites and the forest elephant populations dropped by about 90% on average at the surveyed sites, with poaching and habitat loss the main drivers. All told, there was a 77% population decrease on average at the various surveyed sites, spanning both species, Reuters reported.

Elephants vanished at some sites while their populations increased in other places thanks to conservation efforts.

"A lot of the lost populations won't come back, and many low-density populations face continued pressures. We likely will lose more populations going forward," said George Wittemyer, a Colorado State University professor of wildlife conservation and chair of the scientific board of the conservation group Save the Elephants, who helped lead the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Poaching typically involves people killing elephants for their tusks, which are sold illegally on an international black market driven mostly by ivory demand in China and other parts of Asia. Agricultural expansion is the top factor in habitat loss.

The forest elephant population is estimated to be about a third that of savanna elephants. Poaching has affected forest elephants disproportionately and has ravaged populations of both species in northern and eastern Africa.

"We have lost a number of elephant populations across many countries, but the northern Sahel region of Africa - for example in Mali, Chad and Nigeria - has been particularly hard hit. High pressure and limited protection have culminated in populations being extirpated," Wittemyer said.

But in southern Africa, elephant populations rose at 42% of the surveyed sites.

"We have seen real success in a number of places across Africa, but particularly in southern Africa, with strong growth in populations in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia. For populations showing positive trends, we have had active stewardship and management by the governments or outside groups that have taken on a management role," Wittemyer said.

The study did not track a continent-wide population tally because the various surveys employed different methodologies over different time frames to estimate local elephant population density, making a unified head count impossible. Instead, it assessed population trends at each of the surveyed sites.

A population estimate by conservationists conducted separately from this study put the two species combined at between 415,000 and 540,000 elephants as of 2016, the last year of the study period. It remains the most recent comprehensive continent-wide estimate.

"The loss of large mammals is a significant ecological issue for Africa and the planet," said conservation ecologist and study co-author Dave Balfour, a research associate in the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.

The world's third extant elephant species, the slightly smaller Asian elephant, faces its own population crisis, with similar factors at play as in Africa.

Of African elephants, Wittemyer said, "While the trends are not good, it is important to recognize the successes we have had and continue to have. Learning how and where we can be successful in conserving elephants is as important as recognizing the severity of the decline they have experienced."

Wittemyer added of these elephants: "Not only one of the most sentient and intelligent species we share the planet with, but also an incredibly important part of ecosystems in Africa that structures the balance between forest and grasslands, serves as a critical disperser of seeds, and is a species on which a multitude of other species depend on for survival."