Eternally stylish, Grace Kelly

The world has only so many princesses and Philadelphia produced precisely one. But Grace Kelly, born to a former bricklayer, was of such innate regal bearing and ineffable beauty that she successfully transformed Monaco from an afterthought into a nation with an enduring identity.

Twenty-five years after her death at 52 in a car crash, Princess Grace remains one of Monaco's two leading resources (the other being its stature as the world's most glamorous tax haven).

To celebrate the former, an extensive two-week celebration of her life begins today in Manhattan, its centerpiece a Sotheby's exhibition of more than 500 personal possessions, including 20 outfits and 65 pieces of jewelry - among them a tiara and her 10.47-carat, emerald-cut diamond engagement ring - plus hats, hairbrushes, home movies, gloves, letters and, naturally, an Hermès Kelly bag.

She apparently never threw anything away - the original exhibition in Monaco, which closed last month, contained 2,000 objects. This one is the largest display of her possessions ever presented in the United States, according to the consul general, and is free and open to the public.

Two important outfits, selected by her children, will be auctioned at an Oct. 25 gala to benefit the Princess Grace Awards for emerging performing artists: a Helen Rose gray-over-rose embroidered gown that the actress wore in High Society, her last film; and a Givenchy sleeveless belted dress with matching bolero jacket. She wore the latter in 1961 on a visit to the Kennedy White House and a trip to Ireland.

The outfit, incidentally, is kelly green.

The auction is open to the public with an initial bid of $2,000 followed by $500 increments. Forms are available at www.aCelebrationofGrace.com.

If Monaco long had been, as W. Somerset Maugham put it, "a sunny place for shady people," Grace Kelly changed all that when she married Prince Rainier in 1956. Though the Grimaldi family's presence stretched back to 1297, it was she who imported style, glamour, beauty, international attention and, well, grace to the postage stamp of a principality - one square mile, with 4,000 subjects.

"She brought to Monaco a cool beauty and a sense of purpose," says Maguy Maccario-Doyle, Monaco's consul general, who helped head this month's celebration. "Monaco was never the same after her. She transformed her country."