Ten dresses that once belonged to the late Diana, Princess of Wales are expected to fetch £800,000 (Dh4.44 million) when they are sold at auction in the United Kingdom this month. The gowns include the Victor Edelstein creation of midnight blue silk velvet that Diana wore in 1985 when she danced with John Travolta at a White House ball thrown by the president, Ronald Reagan. That particular number, which Diana wore when she was the most famous woman in the world, is forecast to go for £300,000.
The dresses are all in 1980s style with voluminous sleeves, boxy shoulder pads and lots of crushed velvet. Kerry Taylor Auctions, the organiser, described the March 19 auction as "fabulous and historic".
Other dresses for sale include the Mughal-inspired Catherine Walker pink silk evening gown Diana wore on her 1992 state visit to India, expected to fetch £120,000; and the Catherine Walker black velvet and beaded evening gown Diana wore for a Vanity Fair photo shoot with Mario Testino at Kensington Palace in 1997, valued at £70,000.
In 1997, her marriage over, Diana cleared out her wardrobe in preparation for her new life. It was her son, Prince William, then 15, who convinced her to put her dresses up for auction and give the proceeds to charity. The New York auction held by Christie's raised £2m.
The Florida socialite Maureen Dunkel bought 14 of the gowns for £500,000. When Diana died in a car crash just months later, the dresses soared in value.
Ms Dunkel set up a charitable foundation to preserve and display Diana's dresses. However, she racked up a considerable amount of debt doing so. She loaned some dresses to Kensington Palace for a while but the dresses were expensive to insure and attendance failed to meet expectations.
When the dresses returned to the United States, they ended up in places such as Walt Disney World in Florida and the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show, according to the Daily Mail.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
