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Jewels from tin tycoon and socialite up for sale

AFP
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Jewels from tin tycoon and socialite up for sale
The late Parisian socialite Hélène Rochas. Photo: AFP/File

Christie's in Geneva is auctioning millions of euros worth of jewellery from the collections of "King of Tin" Simon Patino and Paris socialite Hélène Rochas this autumn.

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The gems will go under the hammer during Christie's traditional autumn jewellery sale on November 12th, the auction house said in a statement on Tuesday.
   
The three pieces from the Patino collection include a Cartier diamond and emerald necklace with an estimated value of between 6.6 and 9.4 million francs ($7-10 million).
   
The Bolivian mining tycoon, who was also dubbed the "Andean Rockefeller", bought the necklace for his wife in 1938.
 
 Also on offer from his collection will be a Chaumet diamond ring with an estimated value of between 1.7 million and 2.1 million euros.
   
By the end of the 1930s, Patino (1860-1947) controlled 60 percent of world tin production and was among the world's five wealthiest men.
   
Christie's will also auction off 18 items from the collection of Hélène Rochas, the wife of French fashion designer Marcel Rochas.
   
She died in 2011, and Christie's auctioned off the contents of her sumptuous Parisian apartment in September 2012.
   
The items in the November sale titled "Le Chic Parisien" will include rare pieces such as a shoulder brooch by Rene Boivin in the form of a tiger valued at between 150,000 and 212,000 euros.
   
Hélène Rochas was a stalwart of the elite "Café Society" of socialites who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in New York, Paris and London starting in the late 19th century.

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