including her necklace, the Bismarck Sapphire, to the Smithsonian. Mona von Bismarck died in 1983 at the age of 86. She was buried on Long Island and her fortune was used to establish the Mona ...

The gem was the centerpiece of a $2,200 diamond- and sapphire-encrusted necklace bought by Hill on Dec. 24, 1886, from a vendor identified in Hill's receipts as Randel, Baremore Billings.