Christie’s Auction Of Elizabeth Taylor’s Baubles Shattered Records

It may be a tough economy, but collectors seem to think the late Elizabeth Taylor’s diamonds are forever.

According to Forbes, the Collection of Elizabeth Taylor auction at Christie’s last night—which featured everything from  the legendary La Peregrina necklace Richard Burton bought her (at right) to a 33.19 carat diamond Taylor jokingly called an “everyday ring”—defied the wildest of expectations, raking in a total $116 million:

“All 80 lots offered were sold and estimates were shattered then crushed throughout the auction. To the best of my knowledge only two items sold within auction estimates. The rest of the lots made the estimates look like afterthoughts as a jammed room full of bidders competed for items with telephone buyers from around the world.”

A portion of the proceeds go to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, so this is a good thing.

Glee gave the tireless AIDS activist‘s auction a nod last night: In the episode, boyfriends Kurt and Blaine host a campy black-and-white Christmas special in their home, during which Kurt is bidding online for Taylor’s diamond-and-emerald necklace and pendant. Unfortunately, his attempt to bid are thwarted by a wintertime Internet outage.

Later in the episode Mercedes and Rachel show up with a special present: the necklace Kurt wanted! Our little drummer boy is beyond thrilled and calls it, “truly a Christmas miracle.” Mercedes makes a wink-wink aside to the camera and says, “Truly a Christmas knockoff.”

Honey, we’ll take it!

Image via Christie’s