Emma Chamberlain’s Met Gala choker has sent Internet into meltdown

Emma Chamberlain’s Met Gala look for this year has been making headlines. The American youtuber walked the red carpet as the Brand Ambassador for Cartier. The Youtuber wore Louis Vuitton to the red carpet – however, it is her piece of jewellery that has been garnering all the attention. Emma wore an antique piece of jewellery to the red carpet, which was quick to be pointed out by the netizens as the choker that belonged to Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh. Emma owes this Met Gala oopsie moment to European imperialism. Netizens, on spotting the choker adorning Emma’s neck, basked in the nostalgia of history.

In 1928, Maharaja of Patiala decided to turn his De Beers diamond – the seventh largest diamond in the world – into a choker that was to be passed on as heirloom. The royal reached out to Cartier to design his gemstones and diamonds into a necklace and a choker. The necklace, known as the infamous Patiala necklace, consisted of five rows of platinum chains embellished with 2930 diamonds and Burmese rubies. The center of the necklace was adorned by the yellow 234.6-carat De Beers diamond. However, the necklace did not prove to be financially attractive for Cartier, as the Maharaja supplied most of the gemstones.

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In 1948, suddenly the necklace was reported missing from the Patiala royal treasury. The choker, along with the necklace, was also reported missing – this sparked a series of controversies. After 32 years of being reported missing, in 1998, parts of the necklace reappeared in an antique shop. However, the gemstones from the necklace were still missing. Later, Cartier acquired the necklace and replaced it with replicas of the missing stones. It is believed that the necklace in its original form would have been priced at around 30 million dollars in the present times.