maaxx.ca

St. Petersburg, Florida (ANTARA News/Reuters) – 14 outfits once worn by Princess Diana, including the blue silk velvet dress she wore to a White House dinner in 1985, will be auctioned next month, their Florida owner said on Friday (20/5).

Most of the garments in the collection are valued between $175,000 and $550,000, according to the Canadian auction house that will handle the sale in Toronto on June 23.

However, the blue dress is priced between $1 million and $1.25 million. Princess Diana wore it when she danced, for which she became famous, with American actor John Travolta at a White House dinner hosted by President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy.

The clothes were purchased as an investment by Tampa businesswoman Maureen Dunkel for a total of $700,000 in 1997, eight weeks before Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.

After Princess Diana’s death, Maureen set up a non-profit foundation to collect the clothes and raise money for Diana’s charities.

The collection has been exhibited in major cities across the United States, Canada and New Zealand and was on display for 10 years at Kensington Palace in London, where Princess Diana lived after her divorce from Prince Charles, Maureen said.

Toronto was one of the most popular locations on the tour, he said.

The sale will take place a week before Diana’s son, Prince William, and his wife, Kate Middleton, arrive in Canada for a week-long visit. They were married on April 29 at Westminster Abbey.

The garments will be on display in Waddington from June 21 to 23. Images and estimated prices for the garments can be found on Waddington’s website, www.waddington.ca.

Bidding can be done in person or by telephone, Reuters reported. (C003/A011/K004)