Dress at auction

An evening gown belonging to Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997) is up for auction at Sotheby's in New York, the auction house's press office said Friday.

Created in 1989 by fashion designer Victor Edelstein, the dark-black velvet dress was auctioned at Christie's a month before Diana's death in 1997. The dress is being auctioned this time from a private collection.

It is noted that Edelstein designed outfits for Diana from 1982 to 1993. The dress put up for auction is estimated by experts at $80-120,000 and will be auctioned on January 23.

Diana was the wife of the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, now King Charles III from 1981 to 1996. Considered the 'queen' of charity events, a true fashion icon, Diana conquered the world with her unconventional spontaneity. This was so liked by ordinary people, but not understood by the upper classes, to which Diana herself belonged, as a member of the aristocratic Spencer family.

In a 2002 nationwide poll conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC, Princess Diana was ranked third on a list of the 100 Greatest Britons of All Time.

On August 31, 1997, the princess was killed in a car accident in the Paris tunnel under the Alma Bridge. The Mercedes, in which the princess was travelling, was trying to break away from the paparazzi chasing the car and at high speed hit the tunnel wall, then hit a pillar that separated the traffic and overturned. The only survivor of the crash was the princess' bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. Diana herself, her lover Dodi Al Fayed and the driver, Henri Paul, were all victims of the tragedy.