Her whopping fortune comes not from her dazzling screen career but astute business deals and the popularity of her perfume lines. Taylor, who is credited with launching the 'celebrity fragrance', enjoyed success with her perfumes launched with the Elizabeth Arden brand.
Since their launch in 1991, Taylor's White Diamonds and Passion fragrances have generated sales of over $1bn, with White Diamonds being the biggest selling celebrity perfume ever. Sales of the product are expected to rise in the wake of Taylor's death.
Her jewellery collection, which was valued at $150 million back in 2002, will most probably be auctioned off in support of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and amfAR, an AIDS charity Taylor co-founded in the mid-80s. Her collection contains the famous La Peregrina pearl, which dates back some 500 years.
Originally thought to have been found by an African slave in the mid-16th century, the pearl passed through the hands of Phillip II of Spain, Mary I of England before ending up with the Hamilton family, who Burton purchased it from for $37,000 in 1969, giving to Taylor as a Valentine gift.
In her book, Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry, the star admitted that she didn't keep a careful eye on the pearl, on one occasion losing it. Frantically searching her house before Burton found out it was missing, Taylor discovered one of her dog's chewing it like a bone.
She wrote, 'I just casually opened the puppy's mouth and inside his mouth was the most perfect pearl in the world. It was - thank God - not scratched.'
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