• Spencer Platt / Getty Images

    Christie's auction house employees speak on the phone to bidders under pictures of Elizabeth Taylor at Christie's, where hundreds of items once belonging to the iconic actress have gone on the auction block on Dec. 14, 2011 in New York City. Taylor's jewelry collection, much of it given to her by Richard Burton, brought in a record-setting $115 million including more than $11.8 million for a pearl necklace. Sales of Taylor's clothing, art and other memorabilia are currently being held. Part of the proceeds from the auction will go to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

    $116 million auction of Liz Taylor jewels breaks record

    By Rich Shulman

    I really like the way Spencer Platt framed this image.

    Reuters reports:

    NEW YORK — An auction of actress Elizabeth Taylor's world-renowned jewels took in $116 million, more than double the record for a single collection, and set new marks for pearls, colorless diamonds and Indian jewels.

    Christie's sale of 80 items from Taylor's collection on Tuesday had been estimated to raise about $20 million. But everything from her famous 33-carat diamond ring, a gift from Richard Burton, to her charm bracelets sold for many times their estimates.

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  • Elizabeth Taylor: Never-before-seen pictures

    Mark Kauffman/TIME & LIFE Pictures

    In 1948, Mark Kauffman captured the young actress and her home life. Here, she gazes into the distance while wearing an "All America" sweatshirt; the pin she wears belonged to Glenn Davis, a 1946 Heisman Trophy-winning athlete she was dating at the time.

    Life.com’s exclusive gallery of 16 never-before-seen pictures from Elizabeth Taylor’s life is viewable here.

    Taylor appeared on the magazine's cover a record 14 times, starting when she was just 15 years old, and over the following decades many LIFE photographers captured the astonishingly beautiful movie star.  But a magazine only has so many pages -- and several stunning images of the Hollywood icon never actually made it to print. As such, LIFE.com is now featuring an unpublished gallery of photos of Elizabeth Taylor from the magazine's archives.

    Paul Schutzer/TIME & LIFE Pictures

    In costume as Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Burton and Taylor share a look on the set. They were the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of their day, two impossibly gorgeous movie stars whose controversial relationship fascinated the world. They would marry not once, but twice.

    Peter Stackpole/TIME & LIFE Pictures

    During a break in filming A Place in the Sun, Taylor chats with her costar Montgomery Clift on the Paramount lot. The two would remain close friends; she would even save his life in 1956, after he smashed his car into a telephone pole following a party at her house (Taylor removed his shattered teeth from his throat, and kept him from choking).