The 300-carat necklace thought to be at the center of the infamous 'Affair of the Diamond Necklace' that contributed to the French Revolution sold at auction in Geneva

The necklace containing around 300 carats of diamonds was bought by an unidentified woman who put in her bid over the phone, Sotheby's said.

The necklace, which has been worn at two British coronations, smashed auction house estimates at a jewelry sale in Switzerland on Wednesday.

The magnificent necklace may contain diamonds involved in a scandal surrounding Marie-Antoinette, that would eventually trigger the French Revolution.

The piece was at the centre of a scandal in the 1780s known as the 'Diamond Necklace Affair' in which a hard-up noblewoman named Jeanne de la Motte pretended to be the French queen and acquired the necklace in her name without payment.

Worn at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, the 300-carat diamond necklace sold Wednesday for more than twice its estimate at an auction in Geneva.

Experts say some of the stones in the piece are a match with the original diamonds central to a royal scandal.