In 2012, Christie's Auctions held an auction called "Jewels for Hope."
At the auction, the auctioneers produced 72 sets of precious jewelry, each of which was gorgeous.
From the moment everyone saw the jewelry, they couldn't help but whisper.
In the end, after a fierce bidding session, 72 sets of jewelry sold for $37.92 million, and the owner of the jewelry, Lily Safra, was also crowned "Jewel beauty".
People are generally more interested in her origins than in the huge auction money.
Because all of Lily's jewelry, even all of her wealth, was divided and inherited from her husbands.
So, what kind of married life did Lily go through? How did she go from an ordinary girl to the richest widow in the world?
01 Three marriages with material as a starting point
Lily Zafra was born in December 1934 in a small town in Brazil.
Lily was undoubtedly lucky, because her parenthood made her much happier than other children.
His father was an engineer and his mother was a Uruguayan nobleman.
Although their lives are far from luxurious, they can also be regarded as pampered.
However, greed is endless.
After Lily was born, her mother got tired of living such a "normal" life and remarried to a local rich man.
One day, her mother found Lily and persuaded bitterly: "Aristocratic life is the best destination for women, and marriage is the best means to change women's fate." ”
At first, Lily didn't think so, but with the influence of time, her mentality gradually changed.
"I'm so beautiful, why should I live such a mediocre life, maybe my mother is right." 」
Under the influence of this mentality, Lily began to find a "good person" for herself.
At the age of 17, Lily married Mario Cohen, a textile boss, and lived a long-awaited aristocratic life.
After marriage, the life of the two is very "happy", and Lily has given birth to 3 children for her husband.
Unfortunately, the two did not reach the end, after all, this is a marriage full of motives.
In 1960, Mario filed for divorce: "I'll give you breakup and maintenance, but you're leaving with the kids." ”
In the face of her husband's desperate feelings, although Lily was reluctant in her heart, she did not want to make a big fuss.
In this way, Lily's first marriage ended, and she left with a large amount of property and three children.
After the divorce, Lily did not collapse and continued to look for her next "husband".
Five years later, Lily married Brazilian power magnate Alfredo Monti verdi and began her second marriage.
Although Monti Verdi was very valuable, he suffered from bipolar disorder all the time.
When Lily found out about this, she once wanted to file for divorce, but after a while together, Lily found that her husband was very good to herself, and even if she had a bipolar attack, she would not lose her temper with herself and her children.
When Lily thought she was going to spend her days with her husband, something suddenly happened and Monty Verdi committed suicide at home.
Lily is in pain when she learns of her husband's death, and at the same time, a man in a suit and leather shoes comes to the door.
"Madam, your husband has left you £160 million, and you need to sign it and go through the formalities with us."
In this regard, Lily was shocked, and after the shock, she raised her spirits and prepared to go, after all, she still had to live.
However, when they were about to go out, the police came to the door.
It turned out that Monty Verdi's suicide attracted the attention of many parties, and some people believed that Lily had killed her husband.
After the police interrogated and investigated Lily many times, Lily finally inherited the huge inheritance left by her husband due to nothing.
While dealing with her husband's estate, Lily became acquainted with the famous banker Eamond Sappho.
At this time, Eamon was nearly 40 years old, but he still had no wife and children, he had many lovers, but he was always reluctant to marry, because he believed that women were for his money.
In the process of helping Lily deal with a huge inheritance, Eamon fell in love with Lily.
Lily has a beautiful appearance, elegant temperament, and her own rich family, will not covet her own property, which is very in line with Eamond's mate selection criteria.
When Eamon expressed her heart, Lily recalled her selfless help and decided to give the two a chance.
After getting along, the two found that they were very suitable for each other, and slowly moved towards talking about marriage.
However, their marriage was opposed by Eamond's two brothers.
The brothers always suspected that Lily's husband's death was related to her, believing that Lily had come for Eamond's property.
Moreover, Lily has missed the optimal age for childbearing, and once the two are married, the future Eamond's property will fall into the hands of Lily and her children born to others.
The family's worries and opposition made Eamon hesitant, and his retreat hurt Lily's self-esteem, and she soon married a Moroccan businessman.
This marriage is destined not to last long and be happy.
After marriage, Lily did not want to sleep in a room with her husband, and she lost her temper at every turn.
Soon the husband realized the truth about Lily's marriage to himself, and two months later, the two ended the ridiculous marriage.
It is worth mentioning that when the two separated, Lily once again received a considerable fortune from her husband. 02 Married to the fourth husband because of love
At that time, Eamond heard that Lily was divorced, and could no longer suppress his thoughts about Lily in his heart, and found Lily.
During the meeting, Eamon expressed remorse to Lily.
Lily never forgot Eamon's cowardice, and Lily scoffed at his apology.
Seeing his former lover so cold, Eamon's heart ached, but after separating from Lily, Eamon saw clearly the weight of Lily in his heart.
This time, he did not retreat, and visited Lily three times and twice, asking for forgiveness.
After all, Lily really liked Eamon, and under Eamond's unremitting pursuit, the two finally came together.
In 1976, Despite everyone's objections, Eamond entered the palace of marriage with Lily
This marriage is also very significant for Lily, the first three marriages Lily are for money purposes, only this time it is out of love.
After marriage, the two people love each other, so the place of life is very enviable.
As a banker, Eamond has always believed that only gold and silver jewelry can preserve its value, so he has always had a hobby of collecting jewelry and antiques.
Now with a wife, Eamon poured all his affection into him.
After that, he began to collect and buy huge amounts of precious jewelry for Lily all over the world.
In addition, Eamond also purchased mansions for Lily around the world, with two-person villas in New York, London, France and other places, the most famous of which is the Leopolda Manor on the Mediterranean coast of France.
Purchased by the couple in 1987, the estate is now ranked third in the world's most expensive villa, worth up to 3 billion yuan, and is known as the "pearl in the crown".
Infected by Eamon, Lily also fell in love with collecting antiques, and the Leopolda Estate became their "antique collection room".
Lily was particularly fond of 18th-century European decorative arts, so the estate was full of antique treasures from the louis xv and louis xvi eras.
Silver candlesticks by Faberge, armchairs with a bust of Louis XV, bronze gold-encrusted clocks...
From opulent European furniture to exquisite Asian crafts, from costume classics to 18th- and 19th-century interior oil paintings, Lily and Eamon's collection is incredibly diverse.
Unlike other collectors, the couple's attitude toward antiques is not to dominate, but to share.
They often invite friends to their homes to taste these treasures together.
Seeing that the husband and wife are so "generous", acquaintances often joke: "Aren't you afraid to let you endure the pain of cutting love and send us?" ”
In this regard, Lily always smiled and said: "Collecting exquisite crafts and establishing a perfect collection is the goal of my lifelong pursuit with Eamond, it is better that you send us some, we will collect it well, maybe it can have a big effect in the future." ”
I have to say that it is Lily's transparent understanding of art collection that has enabled future generations to see the orphan products she has collected for most of her life.
03 Four marriages are worth 5.6 billion
Logically, the two live such a happy life that they will surely end up together.
However, fate made a big joke for Lily.
In 1999, after discussion, the couple moved to Monaco.
The couple took a nap in different rooms, but the mansion burst into flames.
Lily was the first to realize the fire, and after noticing her danger, she soaked the sheets and draped them on her body and escaped in the fire.
Due to the small size of the fire and Lily's preparations, she escaped successfully.
However, when she did not find her husband in the crowd, she hurriedly dialed her husband's phone.
After the phone was connected, Lily kindly told her husband how to escape, but he refused.
"The house is full of metal doors and bulletproof glass, which must be safe, I hid in the bathroom first, and the rescuers arrived and you let them come to my rescue."
After the explanation, Eamond hung up the phone and waited for rescue.
However, he underestimated the fire at the scene and before the fire brigade arrived, he was choked to death in the bathroom by thick smoke.
After the incident, the outside world's claim that "Lily killed her husband for property" spread throughout the world, but fortunately the police investigation returned Lily's innocence.
It was investigated that the fire was set by a caregiver in Eamond's home.
The cause of the arson is ridiculous, he is jealous that another caregiver is more valued by Edmund, so he wants to blame the other party for setting fire, creating an illusion that he risked the fire to rescue the boss, so as to gain the favor of the boss, but he miscalculated the fire, resulting in Eamund's death.
Lily luckily escaped the disaster and cleared the suspicion, but the outside world's ridicule and malice towards her has never stopped.
Eamon left behind an inheritance of £3 billion, and according to the will, Lily and Eamon's relatives each received half.
Eamon's brothers were very unhappy about this.
So they first accused Lily of tampering with Eamon's will, and then attacked Lily for burying Eamon in Geneva without permission, accusing her of trying to cover up the truth about Eamon's death.
Lily had long been unaccustomed to the ugly faces of her brothers coveting her husband's money.
The two sides confronted each other several times over the matter, and finally ended with Lily's victory.
With Eamon's huge legacy, combined with the wealth she received from her previous husbands, Lily's personal fortune once reached $5.6 billion, ranking 701st on the Forbes Rich List.
This was followed by the new titles given to her by the world's major media as "the world's richest widow", "gilded lilies" and so on.
Of course, many people ridicule her for being a professional widow and becoming a billionaire by marriage.
In the face of all kinds of malice and doubts from the outside world, Lily slapped these people with her own practical actions.
04 In his later years, he sold huge amounts of jewelry and devoted himself to charity
After Eamond's death, Lily did not choose to remarry, and she began to devote herself to the public welfare that her husband had always been enthusiastic about.
For the sake of public welfare, Lily even sold her treasured jewelry.
In 2012, at the age of 78, she commissioned Christie's to hold a public auction to sell all 72 sets of jewelry she treasured.
It was also the first time that Lily and Eamon had seen the entire collection of jewelry over the years, which was rare in number, quality and value.
34 ct emerald diamond ring, 32 ct "Red of Hope" ruby, 173 ct camellia ruby brooch, 598 ct emerald necklace.....
One rare treasure after another was displayed at the auction site, which was dazzling.
In the end, Lily's 72 sets of jewelry sold for a total price of $37.92 million, second only to Elizabeth Taylor and the Duchess of Windsor in history, so the world has crowned her the title of "Jewel Beauty III".
In addition, Lily has served as president of the Eamond Foundation, established a welfare home for orphans in Romania, provided free medical care for children with cancer in israel's Jordan Valley, and so on.
Of course, she also gave the greatest support for the artistic career she loved the most.
Her donations have been received from the Whitney Museum in New York, the Tate Inc. in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral was hit by a fire, and Lily donated 10 million euros.
Some people say that Lily did all this just to create an image, but is this really the case?
Not! After all, few people can do this.
05 Conclusion
Lily's life was full of controversy, four marriages before and after, two bereavements, some people said she was a husband, some people said she was greedy for money. But her contribution to charity and her love of art make "rich" no longer her only label, and "widow" is not her only identity.
To this day, at the age of 88, Lily Sayev is still doing her part for the global public welfare cause, and she wants to carry on her husband's unfinished business.
"It's good to have your time, but after you leave, I will live seriously."
It was her commitment to her husband and her life's credo.
06 References
Forbes 2020 Global Billionaires List[Cited 2020-04-18]
"Lily Safra buys $103.4 million Jacmedi" China Collection Network