Sotheby's to sell Pauline Karpidas's jewels, led by a Jar ring at $3.5 million

Sotheby's will offer 70 jewels from art collector Pauline Karpidas in a dedicated evening sale in New York on Dec. 8. The combined estimate is approximately $10 million for all 70 lots, not a guarantee, and the final prices will be known after the sale. The collection spans designs by Jar, Suzanne Belperron, Cartier, Chanel and Boucheron.

Jewelry helped forge Karpidas's friendship with Andy Warhol, and pieces once owned by the artist are among the highlights. Nearly five decades after he painted her portrait in 1978, the offering draws on the same 1940s jewels the two bonded over.

Leading the auction is a Jar ring set with colored diamond, diamond and chalcedony, estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million. A Jar floral pendant necklace is estimated at $250,000 to $350,000, and a Belperron aquamarine and diamond necklace-brooch at $150,000 to $250,000, while a Belperron necklace of topaz, morganite, aquamarine and diamond reached $825,500 against an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000.

The jewelry follows the sale of Karpidas's art and design collection in London in September 2025. That series realized $137 million and became the most valuable single-owner sale series ever staged in the city, a record the jewelry offering now has to follow.

Quig Bruning, Sotheby's global head of jewelry, framed the appeal in three points. "What sets this collection apart in today's market is that it brings together three things collectors are increasingly looking for: exceptional design, rarity and compelling provenance," he told WWD.

The pieces reflect Karpidas's affinity for bold, sculptural designs and jewelry that blurred the boundaries between adornment and art. Bruning said the jewelry "adds an entirely new dimension to that story" and pointed to continued demand for both Jar and Belperron.

The results behind the estimates

Bruning cited a Sotheby's sale from last year, A Legacy of Elegance: Jewels From an Exceptional Collection. It brought $13.9 million against a high estimate of $8 million, and every lot found a buyer.

A Jar pendant-brooch with colored stones and diamonds made $1 million, double its high estimate.

Provenance usually moves prices as much as stones do. Our ranking of the most expensive jewelry in the world found that pieces once owned by the Duchess of Windsor and others sold for many times their pre-sale estimates.

The Warhol thread

Karpidas met Warhol during a visit to his Factory in New York. They bonded over 1940s jewelry, particularly Belperron. "To begin with, he wasn't even remotely interested in talking about art with me, only my jewelry," Karpidas said.

She bought two lots at Sotheby's 1988 Warhol estate auction. One is a Seaman Schepps bracelet in rock crystal, estimated at $50,000 to $70,000. The other is a Verdura amethyst and diamond brooch with matching earclips, estimated at $20,000 to $30,000.

Other lots carry royal lineage. Cartier ruby earrings and a matching ring were purchased at the landmark 1987 auction of the Duchess of Windsor's jewels. Cartier is better known today for the Santos, Tank and Panthère, which our Cartier buying guide prices.

Bruning returned to the personal side of the sale. Karpidas, he said, "trusted her own eye, surrounded herself with artists and designers, and moved instinctively between art, jewelry and design." He called her relationship with Warhol one of the threads that makes the collection personal.

A public exhibition opens Dec. 2, six days before the evening sale on Dec. 8.