Ellen Barkin’s Jewelry

Actress Ellen Barkin put 103 pieces of jewelry accumulated during her five-year marriage on the auction block at Christie’s this month and netted $20.3 million.

Barkin and billionaire Ron Perelman married in 2000. Their split in January of 2006 was not amicable, with Perelman posting guards to prevent Barkin and her family from entering his property again.

Included in the auction was her wedding ring, a wide band set with four rows of bell-cut diamonds topped in 18k gold, which sold for $130,000. Other pieces of note were topaz earrings, sold for $710,400 and two pieces by Paris jeweler Joel Arthur Rosenthal. These ‘JAR’ designs were a diamond band which sold for $156,000 and an oval shaped 22.76 ct diamond ring for which an American collector paid $1.8 million.

According to Christie’s, the $20.3 million total amounts to the highest single-owner jewelry sale in the US in the past 15 years, and is among the top four in global history. The auction house reported that Barkin was “thrilled” with the sale’s outcome.

Barkin is best known for her roles in the films, "The Big Easy" and "Sea of Love.” Ron Perelmen is chairman of Revlon Inc. and has a reported value of more than $6 billion.