Youtuber Emma Chamberlain is in the eye of a storm following an appearance at the Met Gala last week. 

She wore Maharaja of Patiala’s diamond choker to the event and paired the choker with a custom-made Louis Vuittion dress.

The choker, also known as the 1928 Patiala Necklace, was commissioned by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. Cartier had crafted the  masterpiece with 2,930 diamonds and a 234.65 carat De Beers diamond as the centrepiece.  

Also Read: Met Gala 2021: Youtuber Emma Chamberlain wears a gold mini

So why is there such a fuss about it? The necklace was said to have disappeared from the Royal Treasury of Patiala around 1948, and parts of it, including the massive Da Beera diamond, were later bought by Cartier, reported The Indian Express. In 1982, at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, the “De Beers” diamond reappeared and was sold. After managing to recover a part of the necklace at a second-hand jewellery store in London in 1998, Cartier has tried to restore it by replacing the missing diamonds and stones with replicas, Mashable reported.

“This choker is a piece of India’s stolen history, not a fancy piece of jewellery to lend out to celebrities or youtubers. I found this disrespectful on so many levels,” tweeted Brown Baddies NFT Collection , an account representing South Asian women to put Women of colour (WOC) on the blockchain.

In a clip showing the Youtuber  getting ready for the gala, Chamberlain can be heard describing the choker as “one of the most intense but beautiful pieces of jewellery”. “This specific piece fits the theme so well because during the gilded age, it was all about being extravagant. And I have never seen a more extravagant necklace,” she says in the video.  

However, the Patiala necklace is not the only thing that Britain has stolen from India. Kohinoor, one of the world’s  oldest and expensive diamond was stolen by the British.