"I have never seen stones like this in my life and I am 47 years old, " said Grace Tan, who works for the government commission trying to recover the $5bn the Marcoses are alleged to have siphoned off from the Philippines.
"I have seen blue diamonds, yellow diamonds, pink diamonds, different sizes, different shapes, rubies, sapphires... really, really big - as in big!" she said.
Highlights include a Persian-style necklace with more than 100 carats of canary and pink diamonds, and a diamond-studded bracelet with a 31-carat marquise as the centre-stone.
snip
The Philippines, where a third of its 80 million-strong population lives on a couple of dollars a day
snip
Gems the size of golf balls and suitcases full of pearls were seized by US and Philippine customs officers when the Marcoses fled Manila for Hawaii 17 years ago.
One collection of around 60 pieces was taken from Demetriou Roumeliotes, a Greek friend of the former First Lady, as he tried to leave the country.
At first, customs officers left the jewellery laying about on desks because they did not believe it was real, Ms Tan said.
A second collection of 400 pieces was seized by US Customs in Honolulu.
A third collection, the Malacanang, was left behind in the presidential palace and is still under litigation, but the government hopes the case will be settled in time for the auction.
"Filipinos don't wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty," she said.
During her time as first lady, Mrs Marcos was famed for travelling the world to buy new shoes at a time when millions of Filipinos were living in extreme poverty.
******
Imelda Romualdez Marcos (born July 2, 1929 in Tacloban City) is the former First Lady and a political figure in the Philippines. She is known as the "Steel Butterfly" of the Philippines.
Imelda Romualdez spent her early life as a beauty queen, and in 1950 was voted "Muse of Manila." Her beauty caught the eye of politician Ferdinand Marcos, and the two married in 1954 after a well-publicized 11-day romance.
Imelda Marcos had a very large collection of shoes and lingerie. She reportedly owned 3,000 pairs of shoes (size 81⁄2), which were found by the opposition forces after the Marcos regime was overthrown in 1986. Most were worn only once or not at all. The collection included a pair of plastic disco sandals with three inch high flashing battery-operated heels, 500 (size 38) brassieres, 200 (size 42) girdles, and a bulletproof bra. The shoes became a symbol of her life of luxury amid the poverty of most Filipinos. As recently as February, 2003, Marcos was seen in Italy buying diamonds.
Imelda Marcos has 3 children---Ferdinand Jr. (aka "Bongbong"), Imee, and Irene.
