The 'Jeanne Toussaint' necklace in Ocean's 8 serves as a crucial plot point in the recently released film on a team of female crooks assembled to pull off a heist at New York City's Met Gala. Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) hatches a master plan to have Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) wear it to the annual fashion soiree from where it will be purloined from her. But did you know that the exquisite piece of jewellery, designed by Cartier, has a strong India connection?
Originally designed in 1931, it was commissioned by the Maharaja of Nawanagar. A former princely state, Nawanagar was ruled by the Jadeja dynasty in present-day Jamnagar in Gujarat. Created by Jacques Cartier, it was then described as “the finest cascade of coloured diamonds in the world,” and “a superb realisation of a connoisseur’s dream.” It had a 136.25-carat 'Queen of Holland' diamond. The "coloured diamonds" referred to above were blue-white in its original form, although they appear colourless white in the film.
The silver screen replica, which took eight weeks to be made in the Cartier workshops of Paris using zirconium oxides and white gold, was produced by referring to photographs and drawings of the original design around the owner's neck from the Cartier’s archives. The Ocean's 8 version of the neck-piece was shrunk by 15-20 per cent to fit a girl's neck. The Maharaja's real commission does not exist anywhere in its actual shape as it was later dismantled to fashion other pieces of jewellery.
The necklace is named after Jeanne Toussaint, Cartier’s former creative director who had a major influence in reshaping his design aesthetic, "from abstract Deco designs and into figurative work". Had the Maharaja's version existed today, it would have cost $150 million.