In 2002, South African goldsmith and jeweler Uwe Koetter created this $20,000 gold, pearl, and diamond encrusted chastity belt for a British client from Cape Town. It’s our best guess that the client was a male, because there’s no way a woman would ever buy this for herself… surely?
The chastity belt dates back to the Renaissance era, as a means to keep a lady faithful by putting her privates under lock and key. The original iron chastity belts were prone to problems, though: If the woman didn’t have the appropriate cloth padding between herself and the metal frame, she could fall victim to lead poisoning and, in some cases, death. Ouch. The pricey recreation of such an item is, thus, at best questionable… But it probably makes for a good conversation piece.
