Made infamous for her decadent tastes, lavish lifestyle and ever growing shoe collection, the ex First Lady of the Philipines, Imelda Marcos, is due to have her breathtaking jewellery collection sold off at auction later this year. The BBC reports state,
It was seized by the government when her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, was overthrown in 1986. The authorities are rushing to sell the jewels in case the couple's son, Ferdinand Marcos Junior, becomes vice-president in elections in May.Officials fear he would then stop the auction.
The confiscated jewellery collection, purchased with embezzled funds, has been appraised by auction house, Sotheby's, and the value stands at a whopping, $21m (£14.5m). Some of the pieces are beyond our wildest dreams, containing 10s upon 10s of carats worth in weight of precious stones.The piece de resistance in the Hawaii collection is a rare25-carat pink diamond, said to be the size of a grape and worth approximately $5 million. The collection also includes a Cartier diamond tiara, revalued in November 2015, and discovered to be worth up to 10 times the initial estimates of $50,000. Take a peek at some of the pieces more closely.