ETCHED IN STONE
Times may change but as Bulgari’s new exhibition proves, the allure of the world’s finest jewels endures.
Times may change but as Bulgari’s new exhibition proves, the allure of the world’s finest jewels endures.
Precious antique jewellery, love-worn, cared for and treasured isn’t anything new. It doesn’t signal an exciting new tremor in fashion or a seismic shift, and it won’t have Instagram influencers hyping its arrival in Australia. But for an archivist enmeshed in 132 years of history, new discoveries are not only a result of putting together an exhibition spanning more than 80 years, but also a stirring and serendipitous journey. “There are always surprises in this job,” explains Bulgari’s brand and heritage curator Lucia Boscaini, who cites as an example a rare Bulgari tiara the house had presumed lost.
“We knew that a couple of very important earrings of Elizabeth Taylor’s were purchased at a Christie’s auction by a museum in Doha, so for this exhibition we approached them. We discovered that decades ago they acquired a very rare and precious Bulgari tiara dated 1925 to 1930,” she says. “We had only heard of this tiara in platinum and diamonds. We didn’t have any idea it would still be around, let alone that it was in a museum.”
The intricate piece will make its display debut in Australia, never before seen alongside the 80-plus-piece collection that opens at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne on September 30. Italian Jewels Bulgari Style will allow audiences a likely never-to-be-repeated look at the jeweller’s rich and meticulously preserved archives – in part because sourcing some of the priceless pieces means synthesising loans from myriad private collections and museums worldwide and, if needs must, returning them promptly afterward to their rightful homes.
Being able to do this, Boscaini says, requires skills akin to a detective. “I always feel like the Sherlock Holmes of antique jewellery,” she says laughing. For Bulgari, this includes documenting as many purchases as possible, leaning on personal relationships with clients built through generations, stalking the sales catalogues of prestigious auction houses lest a rare p piece shows up, and using customer service. “If someone has ana old jewel that needs to be fixed or needs to be polished, and
they come to our store in north London, it could highlight an important antique jewel.”
Beyond the jewels themselves, Boscaini hopes the exhibition will also reveal the romance of the personal minutiae running through the house’s history. The multibillion dollar company – bought in 2011 by LVMH for US$6 billion – was built on Italian amicizia; friendship. The descendants of founder Sotirios Voulgaris (Italianised to “Bulgari” after moving to Rome from Greece in 1881), Gianni, Nicola and Paolo Bulgari, established a level of service that blurred the line between friend and shop owner and set an admirable benchmark in the 1950s and 60s.
Taylor, along with legendary actresses like Anita Ekberg, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn and Gina Lollobrigida, frequented the brand’s Via dei Condotti store in down time between filming at the famed Cinecittà studios with iconic directors like Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni.
As a result, many Bulgari pieces – be they bought by paramours or purchased on an actress’s salary – wound up on screen. Taylor wore Bulgari in The V.I.P.s, Boom! and Ash Wednesday, among others, and famously on the set of Cleopatra. Actresses showcased their new purchase in a way that isn’t seen much today due to the roles of Hollywood stylists and costume designers. Wittingly or not, those actresses immortalised love affairs, scandals and the spoils of being A-list on screen.
The Bulgari signature – unhampered creativity, a flair for colour and hunger for innovation – was forged in parallel with the hotbed of creativity that was Cinecittà in the exuberant post-war years. To examine these pieces up close is to take in first-hand a multi-faceted piece of history. There are the tremblant brooches, so-called because of the complex springs that house the diamonds, allowing them to quiver prettily; the monete, robust gold chains inlaid with ancient coins as homage to Roman roots; and decadently coloured parures – a set designed to be worn together – like the raspberry and blue cabochons of rubies and sapphires clustered on a weighty necklace dated 1967, then worn by Keira Knightley at the 2006 Academy Awards.
That fascination with celebrities and the way they chose to accoutre their lives endures, and is something Boscaini and the NGV curators understand. Via photographs, film and the pieces themselves, Italian Jewels reminds us that those twinkling orbs on stars, who are so often broken down by social media, restore a certain old-world mystery to their demeanour, even if just for a brief moment. Boscaini hopes attendees will discover this. “It is written in the word, because in Italian gioelli is jewellery and happiness is gioia – joy, so happiness is the root for jewels. That’s what I believe has to be the measurement of achievement that we get through this exhibition; that people will feel joyful.” Faced with jewels of immeasurable value, it would be impossible not to. Italian Jewels Bulgari Style, September 30 to January 29, 2017, at the National Gallery Victoria. Visit www.ngv.vic.gov.au.
SERVICE THAT BLURRED THE LINE BETWEEN FRIEND AND SHOP OWNER