A 198-carat blue sapphire, once owned by Russia’s Romanov imperial family, was sold at auction in Switzerland for €4.4 million. The roughly 40-gram gemstone, about the size of a ping-pong ball, had been worn by the mother of Tsar Nicholas at a 1903 ball in the Winter Palace, set in a Fabergé brooch. It was later incorporated into a diamond bracelet.

The sapphire originated from a mine in Sri Lanka and was acquired by opera singer Ganna Walska through Cartier in the 1920s. After changing hands several times, it returned to Cartier in 2015. Its estimated auction value was €900,000 to €1.8 million, and the new owner was identified only as a private collector.