It must be a tricky situation for an English Earl or a minor royal who has a tiara in the vault that they last wore in the 1970s and is potentially worth hundreds of thousands of pounds or dollars but at the same time can't afford to fix the leaking roof.
Didn't the Duchess of Alba sell a grand tiara to buy her son a horse?
The thing is, the days of wearing tiaras and full evening dress have been over since the Second World War. Not only did the aristocracy start paying taxes for the first time ever but the social scene (especially in London) changed dramatically. People were going to nightclubs instead of grand house parties.
They also stopped the debutante season so there were even less reasons to keep these magnificent jewels they had no occasion to wear them to.
Other than the state opening of parliament or a coronation, there isn't the need for the aristocracy to keep them.
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