The real Peregrina was suposedly found in Panama, wieghed 58 quil. and a half, and was adquired in 1579 by the King Felipe II. In those times it was also called La Margarita (Daisy), La huérfana ( Orphan) and La Sola (Unique).
The pearl belonged to spanish crown jewells until the french napoleonic troops invaded the coundry and looted them.
Jose I Bonaparte should took it , for when he returned to France in the 1840s after being living in the U.S.A he had the pearl with him in 1844. He gave to pearl to the ex queen Hortense of Holland for she to support her son´s(the future Napoleon III) political activities in France.
He sold the pearl around 1848 to the then marquis of Abercorn.
In 1914 the Peregrina was offered by the jewellers R.G. Hennel and Sons to the King Alfonso XIII, but he could not afford the high price and was bought by the billionaire(?) Judge Geary, who would sell it in 1917 to Henry Huntingdon.
In January the 23th of 1968, the Parke Bennet Gallery of New York sold the pearl in auction (lot 129). It was then that Richard Burton bought it for 37.000$ as a present for Liz Taylor´s 37 birthday.
At this point came the discussion, for the day after the auction the Duke of Alba, then master of the household of the Queen Ena of Spain, said that the pearl sold was not the Peregrina, since the Peregrina was still in the queen´s collection.
The confussion came because Alfonso XIII gave Ena in 1906(for their wedding) a brooch with a pearl that she thought was the Peregrina. The brooch was realized by the jewellery Ansorena. The wife of the jeweller Ansorena testified that her husband knew exatcly which jewells the Queen owned and that he had never seen the Peregrina, and there was never a pearl by that name in the Queen´s collection.
So it´s most likely that the real pearl, in view of the documents and testimonies is that of Liz Taylor.