Lily Marinho de Carvalho, known as Dona Lily, is actually a naturalized Brazilian, meaning she wasn’t born in Brazil. Born in Germany, her father was British and her mother was French. She grew up in Paris, where she went on to become “Miss Paris” as a teenager.

But when she was just 18, Lily moved to Brazil with her new husband, Horacio de Carvalho, a Brazilian journalist who owned a Rio de Janeiro newspaper. She was married to this media magnate for forty-five years until his death, and then was remarried to Roberto Marinho, another Brazilian businessman who owned Globo Enterprises. He supposedly fell in love with her while she was still married to her first husband, but didn’t declare his love until after Horacio’s death. They were married for twelve years until Roberto, too, passed away. Lily has become a well-known Carioca socialite who works on social projects and has a great love of fine art.

After the deaths of her husbands, Lily is in possession of an empire of real estate, priceless jewels, and famous paintings, almost all of which she is auctioning off.

At age 87, Lily wants to prevent fighting amongst her grandchildren when she dies. She will create a fund for them out of the R$17 million auctions in Rio, New York, and Geneva, in which she is selling her jewelery, furniture, paintings, housewares, and real estate.

To read more about the auctions and see some of the incredible jewels she is selling, check out the VEJA article here.