The Things We Do For Love and the Story of Donna Franca Florio

Franca Florio, the queen of Palermo, was considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe at the end of the 19th century.   Kings,dignitaries, and artists visited her Sicilian villa to meet her.  Ironically, her husband was known to have many extra marital affairs and gave her pearls after each fling to ease his guilt. (see long necklace in photo).   She believed that her olive complexion made her unattractive. (By the way, her husband was not a very attractive man). So she spent months in a Paris clinic to "porcelainize" her face with a series of painful chemical injections that dissolved her natural skin.  

All she had to show for this was more pearls ....but for just a while.  He squandered her wealth and eventually they had to sell the necklace to survive.