The Taylor-Burton Diamond: Hollywood’s Most Famous Jewel

Some diamonds are famous for crowns and curses. The Taylor-Burton Diamond is famous for love and Hollywood. A flawless, pear-shaped stone of 69.42 carats, it became one of the most talked-about jewels of the 20th century thanks to the two stars whose names it carries.

From a South African mine

The diamond was cut from a roughly 241-carat rough stone found at the Premier Mine in South Africa in the 1960s. Cutters shaped it into a flawless pear of 69.42 carats with the top "D" color grade — technically about as perfect as a diamond gets.

The Hollywood bidding war

When the diamond went to auction in 1969, the jeweler Cartier won it — but only briefly. Richard Burton, determined to buy it for Elizabeth Taylor, negotiated the stone away in a deal that made headlines worldwide. The price set records and turned the gem into a symbol of one of Hollywood’s most famous romances.

Taylor first wore it as a ring, then had it reset as a necklace because the stone was simply too large to wear comfortably on a finger.

A diamond in the spotlight

Elizabeth Taylor wore the diamond at high-profile events, including the Academy Awards, and it became almost as recognizable as the actress herself. Few jewels have ever been so closely tied to a single celebrity, and its appearances kept it in magazines and newsreels for years.

Sold for a cause

After her relationship with Burton ended, Taylor sold the diamond in 1978. She reportedly used part of the proceeds to help fund a hospital in Botswana — a final chapter that gave the glamorous stone a lasting good deed.

Weight

69.42 carats

Shape / color

Pear, D color, flawless

Source

Premier Mine, South Africa

Famous owner

Elizabeth Taylor

Bought by

Richard Burton (1969)

The takeaway

The Taylor-Burton Diamond shows how a stone’s story can be written in spotlights rather than centuries. Flawless, enormous, and bound to a legendary romance, it became one of the most famous diamonds of modern times — and ended its star turn by helping build a hospital half a world away.