Boasting a staggering array of bejewelled mementos once owned by members of India’s ruling classes, the Christie’s Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence auction was always going to be something truly special.

Hosted at the auctioneer’s New York office, the marathon 12-hour sale raked in a total of US$109 million, making it the second-most valuable private collection ever to go under the gavel – outdone only by the 2011 sale of the gems that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor, that most beguiling of screen goddesses.

The lead item this time round was a 1912 Belle-Époque Diamond Devant-de-Corsage Cartier Brooch. Eventually sold for US$10.6 million, the horseshoe-shaped, diamond-draped creation featured two wholly unique gemstones – a brilliant-cut, D-colour, 34.08-carat diamond and an oval-shaped 23.55-carat diamond.

Among the other highlights of the sale were a dazzling Antique Imperial Spinel, Pearl and Emerald Necklace, which went for an eminently respectable US$3 million, and a gem-studded Jigha turban ornament and the The Taj Mahal Emerald brooch – both of which attracted winning bids of US$1.815 million.