Actress Kim Basinger Tuesday sold her 3.7-carat diamond engagement ring from ex-husband Alec Baldwin for $59,750 to a Beverly Hills jewelry dealer, who predicted a fan would “pay crazy money for that.”
The actress, a noted animal rights activist, auctioned the modern Tiffany & Co. ring and some other jewelry at Christie’s to raise money for The Performing Animal Welfare Society.
The group runs a California refuge for abused, retired and surplus elephants, lions, bears and other captive wildlife.
The engagement ring, estimated to fetch between $30,000 and $40,000, was the top-priced item in the auction.
The only other gift from actor Baldwin, whose nine-year marriage to Basinger ended in 2002, on offer was a multigem necklace with a butterfly motif that went for $20,315. Christie’s had predicted it would fetch $8,000 to $10,000.
Yossi Dina of South Beverly Wilshire Jewelry & Loan bought the engagement ring, and spent $47,800 on Basinger’s elegant diamond bracelet in the Art Deco style.
Dina, who said his clients included George Hamilton, Liza Minnelli and Winona Ryder, estimated he paid 30 percent more than the ring was worth. “I got it for a fan. They’ll pay crazy money for that,” he told reporters after the sale.