Will buyers pay a premium for Melissa Caddick’s lavish jewellery?

In the secondary market, story is everything. The better the story, the more desirable the object, and consequently its appeal at auction. Take the rhinestone-covered dress that Marilyn Monroe wore when she breathily sang “Happy Birthday Mr President” to John F Kennedy in 1962. It’s the most expensive dress ever sold at auction, bought for $US4.8 million in 2016 by the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! franchise and infamously worn by “media personality” Kim Kardashian at this year’s Met Gala.

Book lovers may find another example more to their taste: the faux tortoise-shell Celine sunglasses once worn by the American queen of literary cool, Joan Didion, which sold two weeks ago in New York for $US27,000 against an estimate of $US400 to $US800. You could buy yourself a lifetime’s supply of Celine sunglasses for $US27,000 – but that’s not the point. The aura of fame imbues objects with a value far beyond their pure material worth. People pay big money to be associated with celebrity and history.