divorce

New York-based Divorce Your Jewels pays cash for your unwanted jewelry, no matter if it's a five-carat engagement ring, a wedding ring, a jewelry gift you no longer like or want, or jewelry that just sits in a drawer. What makes this service different from something like Cash4Gold is that you set up a personal appointment at your home or the company's office, and the company caters to the high-end clientele. Read more here.

Teeny type at the bottom of the home page indicates that the company has expanded its business to "discreet" departures of museum-quality art, valuable fashion items (e.g., Birkin bags and vintage clothing), or unworn clothes with tags. You also can buy from the company.

No word on whether this service extends beyond New York, but it's worth a call or e-mail: call 917-846-9999/8444 or e-mail Melissa "Missy" Schorr: melissa@divorceyourjewels.com.

A bad divorce has forced another gorgeous property on the market. Maurice Robson says that his acrimonious divorce has led to the listing of Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England. The Grade-II listed mansion in the Cotswolds is on the market for £42 million. The home was built in 1673 but it has only been in Robson's family for around 60 years (Robson is 65).

The Daily Mail reports that the home is on a 2,000-acre site with gardens designed by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, the 18th century architect. The potential purchaser also gets a small village in the deal. Nether Kiddington has 18 homes and a kindergarten. Robson inherited the property in 1982 from his father, Sir Lawrence Robson, a founder of the accountants Robson Rhodes & Co. And how's this for a real estate deal, Sir Lawrence bought the house for just under £115,000 in 1950. It borders several other grand estates.

Maurice Robson was married to his wife for 24 years and they have two teenage children. According to the article, she accuses her ex-husband of a certain level of divorce melodrama saying that the home would have been sold anyway. Robson has already sold a 19,000-acre deer-hunting estate in Scotland but also owns a 17th century castle in the Scottish Highlands. It used to be when a man felt particularly aggrieved by his divorce settlement he might discreetly complain to a few friends over a good whisky. These days in some ways it almost seems like a battle scar to declare that the wife has taken off with everything.

The question is whether or not there is a buyer with deep enough pockets to take on Kiddington Hall. This isn't the ideal time to hoist this type of impressive listing onto the market even though it is reportedly an excellent property. The usual crowd of Russian and Middle Eastern billionaires will likely be trotted through the property over the next few months but that price would give even the most corpulent of fat cats pause.

Monty Python star John Cleese has reached a divorce settlement with his wife and the numbers aren't pretty. Cleese was married to psychotherapist Alyce Faye Eichelberger in 1992. Now he must pay her a total settlement worth $19.7 million. The terms of the divorce give her an apartment in New York, a $3.3 million London home and part ownership of a California beach house. Cleese will be worth less than his former wife. His total net worth will be around $16.5 million. To his credit, Cleese seems to be able to laugh about the situation telling London's Daily Telegraph that "I will know in future if I go out with a lady they will not be after me for my money." Cleese, who is 70, hasn't stopped working. He is said to currently be writing a one-man show called My Alyce Faye Divorce Tour. Cleese's settlement looks mild compared to some others. The Telegraph rounds up the top ten including Rupert and Anna Murdoch, Michael and Juanita Jordan, and Neil Diamond and Marcia Murphey.

It's been no secret that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has a wandering eye. But his wife, Veronica Lario, who is 20 years his junior, finally seems to have had enough. Over the weekend, she announced that she wants a divorce apparently angered by Berlusconi's attendance at an 18-year-old girl's birthday party. The pair have lived separate lives for many years. In fact to find a picture of them in public archives you have to go back to 2004.

This is far from the first time that Veronica Lario has vented her frustrations about her husband's behavior. In 2007, she was so angry about Berlusconi's overtures to MP Mara Carfagna that she wrote a letter to the newspaper La Repubblica.

Berlusconi for his part is blustering about, saying that he is not sure if he can forgive his wife this time and the nearly 30-year relationship may be over. The couple met in 1980 and married in 1990 and have three children. Should they divorce a $6.5 billion fortune is at stake. Berlusconi owns Italy's three biggest private TV networks and a host of other businesses. He has five children total. His son and daughter from his first marriage are involved in two of his businesses and his children with Lario, who are all in their early 20s, own stakes in his holding company Fininvest.

Berlusconi's divorce could be one of the most expensive in history, a list that currently includes Michael Jordan and Paul McCartney and is topped by Rupert Murdoch. Maybe he and Mel Gibson need to get together and commiserate.

The king and queen of Las Vegas are divorcing. Billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn and wife Elaine filed for divorce last week. Wynn is the charismatic chief executive of Wynn Resorts which is behind the luxurious Wynn and Encore hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. Elaine Wynn is a director on the company's board and was recently nominated for another three year term on the board.

This is a second divorce for the Wynns who were first married in 1963 but divorced in 1986 and then remarried five years later. Elaine Wynn has had an influential role in the organization especially in helping decide which stores would be in the Wynn Resorts' retail spaces. Rumor has it that Steve Wynn is involved with another woman, British socialite Andrea Danenza Hissom.

Steve and Elaine Wynn each own more than 24 million shares in Wynn Resorts. Those shares have slumped in the past few months but are still worth around $460 million. The divorce could be one of the costliest in the U.S. and a great deal depends on just how amicable it is. If Wynn needs to buy his wife out that could have a serious impact on a company that is already affected by the tourism slump in Las Vegas.

Paul McCartney may have to pay $48.6 million in a divorce settlement to Heather Mills but he's in no danger of going broke anytime soon. The divorce settlement reveals the extensive of McCartney's massive fortune, which is over $750 million. McCartney has invested well in both art and real estate. The Daily Mail reports that McCartney's real estate holdings include a townhouse in St John's Wood, London, a Manhattan apartment, a Long Island, New York estate, a Beverly Hills home, a 1,500 acre estate, a country retreat in the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland and other homes sprinkled throughout the English countryside. The bulk of his wealth comes from his business assets including shares in Beatles songs and his investments and he has a cool £15 million in the bank.

A company in Beverly Hills, California has launched a new service for men. Hemancipation is an interior design and concierge service that specifically caters to wealthy men who are in the midst of a divorce. The company offers newly single men the services of a realtor to find a new home, an interior designer to decorate the home, an image consultant to help you prepare for the single life and a concierge to handle shopping and travel arrangements. Each client is assigned a lifestyle consultant who creates a customized plan based on the customer's individual needs. I wonder if in the past wealthy men just had their assistants help with this sort of thing.