A World of Refinement

Swiss timepiece manufacture celebrates the fourth edition of Chantilly Arts & Elegance through a two- day fete at the Château de Chantilly

A rain of confetti suits a festive mood; Official gala dinner of Chantilly Arts & Elegance legance was in no short supply at the Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille, where watches, art, and automobiles attracted over 16,000 guests to the historic Château de Chantilly in France. From 9 to 10 September, attendees were treated to exhibition inaugurations (that of Nicolas Poussin’s Le Massacre des Innocents was this year’s kick-off ), rally races, equestrian performances, and garden parties. In front of the château was a mise en scène of Salvador Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus. Richard Mille’s artistic director Mélanie TretonMonceyron was on hand to guide the visitors from exhibition to exhibition with assistance from young singers and dancers from Chantilly.

The Chantilly Arts & Elegance first came to be in 2012, when a lavish restoration was commissioned to transform the château into a venue for the most prestigious happenings. Patrick Peter of Peter Auto, the company at the helm of organising the events, had been in search of the best possible venue for their automobile shows. Horologer Richard Mille, who’d been tapped by Peter to take part, says, “I’ve always sought to open haute horology to the world of sports, to art, to life if you will. Applying this attitude to the auto show seemed like a splendid idea to me. So, when Patrick put together an event at the crossroads of automobiles, fashion, art, and epicurean pleasures in a setting like Chantilly, it was self-evident that the brand should be associated with what was to become Chantilly