Princess Diana’s Black Sheep Sweater Breaks a Record with Its $1.143M Sale

A record was set this week—did you catch it? Princess Diana’s iconic black sheep sweater—which Marie Claire profiled earlier this summer—went up for auction and netted a cool $1.143 million, making it the highest price paid at auction for an item worn by the late Princess of Wales, People reports.

The famous garment—worn in 1989 by Diana to likely signify her feelings as “the black sheep” of the royal family—was auctioned off by Sotheby’s in New York at its latest Fashion Icons auction during New York Fashion Week. The sweater was offered with an estimate of just $50,000 to $80,000; bidding jumped from $190,000 to its final price after an intense 15-minute bidding battle. Prior to this sale, the record was held by Diana’s Victor Edelstein aubergine evening gown, which made fashion history when it sold for $604,800 this past January. The dress was also a 1989 look and also auctioned off by Sotheby’s; it pulled in five times the pre-estimate.

Sally Muir is cofounder of Warm and Wonderful, the brand that designed the famed sweater. (Her cofounder is Joanna Osborne.) “I went to Jo’s for the last two hours of the auction, and we had bucks fizz and sat down with some friends of hers and watched it,” Muir told People. “Nothing happened for hours, and then it all went berserk in the last 10 minutes. It was nail-biting because it had been stuck at the same level at around $180,000 all day, which we thought was brilliant, and then it just went mad. Everyone just screamed every time it went up!”

Muir added that she’s “absolutely dying to know” who bought the piece, “but it’s all confidential unless it goes to a museum, and then we might find out,” she said. “It’s kind of frustrating but also quite intriguing because, of course, we have been speculating.”

When asked what Diana herself would think of the record-breaking sale, Muir said she would be “quite amused by it. It’s just the power of Diana. It goes on and on.”

The sweater that sold at auction was the second version of the sweater made for the princess; the original was worn in 1983. The success of the black sheep sweater at auction follows the sale of three of Diana’s gowns at auction for $1.162 million last week; those three looks—one from Bruce Oldfield and two from Catherine Walker—were a part of Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies Presents “Legends: Hollywood and Royalty,” which was held in Beverly Hills and online.