Headline Jewellery News of 2025: The Moments, Jewels and Scandals That Got Everyone Talking

2025 was not a year of subtlety in jewellery. Gothic glamour shared the stage with emeralds of extraordinary scale; museum acquisitions sat alongside police investigations; and creative shifts played out against a backdrop of volatile prices. From courtrooms to period dramas, moments from the jewellery world surfaced in some of the most unexpected places.

What follows is a round-up of the year’s most talked-about jewellery news, spanning red carpets, blockbuster exhibitions and headline-making trials – ideal reading for the Twixmas days between Christmas and the New Year.

Red Carpets, Romance and Pop Culture Moments

In 2025, some of jewellery’s most visible moments played out on red carpets, engagement ring fingers and screens watched by millions.

February 2025 - Lady Gaga Goes Full Gothic at the Grammys

Red carpet jewellery is often spectacular, but rarely historic. At the 2025 Grammys, Lady Gaga managed to do both, wearing a never-before-seen Tiffany & Co. necklace dating from the early 1930s. Set with pearls, black onyx and a pale green tourmaline, the piece was designed by Meta Overbeck, one of Tiffany & Co.’s pioneering female designers, under the direction of Louis Comfort Tiffany, at a moment when the house was transitioning from the flourishes of Art Nouveau towards the cleaner geometry of Art Deco. Shown publicly for the first time nearly a century after its creation, the necklace drew fresh attention to Tiffany’s archives and to the women designers whose work has too often been overlooked.

May 2025 - Priyanka Chopra Jonas Wears a 241 Carat Emerald to the Met Gala

Priyanka Chopra Jonas made one of the year’s most emphatic red-carpet statements at the 2025 Met Gala, wearing Bulgari’s Magnus Emerald necklace, showcasing a 241-carat emerald cut Colombian emerald – the largest emerald ever set by the house and one of the most important stones ever mined in Colombia. Shown ahead of the official unveiling of Bulgari’s 2025 High Jewellery collection, Polychroma, the necklace made its first public appearance on one of the world’s most scrutinised red carpets. Worn with Balmain Couture and additional Bulgari high jewellery, it marked Chopra Jonas’ fifth Met Gala appearance and, by sheer scale alone, her most striking to date.

June 2025 - Lauren Sánchez’s Engagement Ring #2 Sparks Intense Speculation

When Lauren Sánchez debuted a second engagement ring in Venice ahead of her June wedding to Jeff Bezos, the jewellery world did what it does best: zoomed in, speculated widely and debated proportions and price. Alongside her original engagement ring – a substantial cushion-cut pink diamond designed by Lorraine Schwartz – Sánchez revealed an even larger oval cut white diamond, estimated at 30 to 40 carats and set in a double-halo design. Valued at around $4 million, the moment was a reminder that no jewel invites quite the same level of scrutiny as a celebrity engagement ring.

August 2025 - Taylor Swift Announces Her Engagement and Sets the Engagement Ring Agenda

A moment seen by millions, Taylor Swift confirmed her engagement to Travis Kelce in August by unveiling her ring on Instagram. Designed by Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry in collaboration with Kelce, the ring felt deeply personal and entirely on brand. At its centre sits an elongated cushion-cut diamond, estimated at 8-10 carats and believed to be an antique Old Mine stone. Bezel set in yellow gold, the diamond is framed by fine hand engraving and filigree detailing along the band. As images circulated online, Swifties and jewellery insiders alike praised the ring, singling out its elongated centre stone, personalised details and how perfectly its romantic, vintage aesthetic aligns with Swift’s own.

September 2025 - Downton Abbey’s Finale Delivers Jewellery Worthy of the Curtain Call

The final Downton Abbey film, released in September, starred the franchise’s most significant jewels yet. Set in 1930, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale featured diamond rivière necklaces, sparkling tiaras and ornate brooches sourced from London jeweller Bentley & Skinner, with a combined value exceeding $1.4 million. As the Crawley family confronted modernity and shifting fortunes, 13 antique pieces were worn by the leading ladies. Carefully chosen to reflect their changing world, lighter, more streamlined diamonds replaced the heavier Edwardian jewels of earlier seasons. Once again, jewellery served as visual shorthand for status, transition and inheritance, ending the franchise on a suitably glittering note.

Power Moves, Price Surges & Industry Turning Points

Away from the spotlight, 2025 was a year of surprise moves and shifting ground, with creative departures, rapidly rising gold prices and new industry milestones.

All year - Gold Refuses to Behave

Gold was the unstoppable force driving jewellery decisions throughout 2025, reaching once-unthinkable highs and breaking $4,300 per ounce at its peak. Driven by global uncertainty, central bank buying and sustained investor demand, prices climbed more than 60 per cent over the course of the year, fundamentally shifting how jewellery is made, priced and bought. For jewellers, the impact has been immediate, with margins tightening and designs adapting. As one jeweller put it to me, priorities have begun to reverse: where budgets were once dictated by the stones, an increasing share is now being spent on the gold itself.

March 2025 - Francesca Amfitheatrof Departs Louis Vuitton

Francesca Amfitheatrof’s departure from Louis Vuitton in March marked one of the year’s most significant industry shifts. Over seven years, she helped forge the maison’s jewellery identity. From the success of LV Volt to ambitious high jewellery collections such as Deep Time and Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds, her tenure was instrumental in establishing jewellery as a serious creative pillar within the house, rather than simply an extension of fashion. She leaves behind a jewellery legacy at Louis Vuitton that will be a hard act to follow.

October 2025 - The Launch of the Grand Prix de la Haute Joaillerie

The launch of the Grand Prix de la Haute Joaillerie de Monaco in October introduced a new point of reference for the high jewellery world, with Katerina there to witness it first-hand. Held at the Grimaldi Forum, the inaugural ceremony brought together the world’s leading Maisons and independent creators to celebrate high jewellery on its own terms, with awards spanning heritage, design, savoir-faire and innovation. Chanel took the Grand Prix Prize, Tiffany & Co. claimed a double win and Louis Vuitton, Dior, Messika and Dolce & Gabbana were among the night’s winners, while Sahag Arslanian was named Best New Talent.

Jewellery as Cultural Legacy

2025 reaffirmed jewellery’s place within museums and cultural institutions.

April - November 2025 - Cartier Takes Over the V&A

One of the most resounding jewellery successes of the year, the blockbuster Cartier exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum drew crowds, headlines and long queues. Tickets for the opening weeks sold out within hours, reflecting the degree of anticipation surrounding the first major UK Cartier exhibition in nearly three decades. Spanning more than 350 jewels, watches and objets d’art, the show traced Cartier’s cultural reach from European courts to Indian maharajas and Hollywood icons. Highlights ranged from tiaras and mystery clocks to the legendary Patiala necklace, each reinforcing Cartier’s place at the centre of jewellery history.

September 2025 - Viren Bhagat’s ‘Feather’ Brooch Enters the V&A Collection

September saw a significant museum acquisition, as the Victoria and Albert Museum welcomed Viren Bhagat’s Feather Brooch into its Jewellery Gallery. Handmade in platinum, the brooch takes the form of a stylised plume, composed of graduating feathers set with diamonds and exceptionally fine natural saltwater pearls that Bhagat collected over more than three decades. Inspired by Indo-European head ornaments, its acquisition brings contemporary Indian high jewellery into the same galleries as historic European masterpieces, broadening how jewellery history is presented at the V&A.

Jewellery Noir: Heists, Trials & High Drama

In 2025, jewellery’s darker side surfaced in Paris through a high-profile celebrity trial and an even higher-profile robbery in a revered institution.

May 2025 - The Kim Kardashian Jewellery Heist Trial 

When Kim Kardashian appeared in court in May to testify against those responsible for the 2016 armed robbery at her Paris residence, she did so on her own terms. Wearing a diamond necklace valued at more than $5 million, the decision was widely read as an assertion of control and a refusal to be diminished by the violence she had endured. With her choice of jewellery, Kardashian made it clear that how she was seen was firmly in her control.

October 2025 - A Heist at the Louvre

An audacious October robbery at the Louvre in Paris saw historic crown jewels taken in a matter of minutes, raising uncomfortable questions about the vulnerability of even the world’s most revered cultural institutions. While several suspects were swiftly detained and questioned, and one damaged piece was recovered during the escape, the majority of the jewels remain missing. Investigators have since pointed to serious security lapses at the museum, though officials have stopped short of confirming any inside involvement. With the inquiry ongoing and most of the jewels still missing, the robbery has prompted renewed scrutiny of security at the Louvre and museums more broadly.

Rediscovered Legends & Auction Room Theatre

Some of the year’s most gripping jewellery moments happened in the auction room.

November 2025 - Vanderbilt Family Jewels Shatter Estimates at Phillips

November delivered pure auction-room theatre when jewels from the Vanderbilt family sold for up to four times their pre-sale estimates at Phillips in Geneva. Led by the Vanderbilt Sapphire, a 42-carat sugarloaf Kashmir sapphire and diamond brooch by Tiffany & Co, which achieved $3.57 million against an estimate of $1-1.5 million, the sale highlighted the enduring allure of Gilded Age jewellery. Other highlights included a diamond floral brooch originally part of a Cartier tiara gifted to Gladys Vanderbilt Széchényi, alongside emerald, ruby and diamond jewels that once formed part of her wedding trousseau. 

November 2025 - Napoleon’s Diamond Brooch Exceeds $4 Million at Sotheby’s

November saw another auction-room shock when a diamond brooch believed to have belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte sold to a private collector for $4.4 million at Sotheby’s Geneva, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of around $250,000. Set with a 13.20-carat Old Mine cut diamond and designed to be worn as both a brooch and a pendant, the jewel is thought to have been taken from Napoleon’s personal effects as he fled the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, before passing into the Prussian royal house of Hohenzollern for more than two centuries. 

November 2025 - The Florentine Diamond Resurfaces After a Century

November also brought one of the year’s most unexpected revelations with reports that the Florentine Diamond – a 137.27-carat yellow diamond believed lost for more than a century – had been located in a Canadian bank vault. Formerly part of the Habsburg crown jewels, the stone disappeared from public view after the First World War, its fate the subject of speculation for generations. According to members of the Habsburg family, the diamond’s whereabouts were deliberately kept secret at the request of Empress Zita, the wife of Emperor Charles I of Austria-Hungary, who asked that its location remain undisclosed for 100 years after his death in 1922. While the family has stated there are no plans to sell the diamond, its resurfacing has reopened questions of ownership, with Austrian authorities announcing a review to determine whether it should be considered state property.

December 2025 - A Fabergé Egg Closes the Year in Spectacular Style

Ending the year on a suitably spectacular note, December saw a Fabergé Imperial Winter Egg sell for £22.9 million at Christie’s London. Comissioned by Tsar Nicholas II in 1913 and set with more than 4,500 diamonds, the rock crystal masterpiece, envisaged by Alma Pihl, one of just two female designers at Faberge, set a new world auction record for any work by Fabergé. Sold off by Soviet authorities in the 1920s and long held in private collections, the egg’s return to the auction block showcased craftsmanship at its most exquisite.

What a year in jewellery it’s been! With the Fabergé Egg auction providing a fitting finale, the past 12 months saw pieces debated, scrutinised, rediscovered and revalued, holding our attention right to the very last fall of the hammer.