The big jewelry auctions are back. Christie’s on April 16 in New York is selling 250 jewels in two auction sessions in the Rockefeller Center saleroom. The auction includes a wide range of jewels, rare pearls, precious gems. A treasure that bears the signatures of top maisons, such as Suzanne Belperron, René Boivin, Bulgari, Cartier, Tiffany, VanCleef & Arpels, David Webb, Harry Winston. The goal is to reach 50 million. According to Rahul Kadakia, head of jewels USA and Switzerland at Christie’s, «the auction in New York includes a magnificent selection of important pieces, rare colored gems and signed jewels». There is also a charitable purpose, given that from the sale of the collection of Riki and Jerome Shaw a part of the proceeds will be donated to the rescue of animals destined for a cruel fate. Also up for auction is the jewelry collection of Kathleen and Martin Field, with a historic diamond and emerald brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels, which is among the most valuable pieces on sale. Among other things, the central emerald was originally mounted on the tiara of Marie-Louise, Napoleon’s second wife, made by Etienne Nitot et Fils, in Paris, on the occasion of the emperor’s wedding in 1810. Marie-Louise later donated it to her aunt, Archduchess Elise, and later, in 1953, the tiara was sold to Van Cleef & Arpels. The maison then made this brooch around the emerald for Sybil Harrington, an American woman very active in philanthropy, in 1967. This brooch has already been sold in 1999 for $178,500.
The April auction features a selection of gems ranging in size from less than one carat to over 50 carats. The top selling item is a pair of 22.60- and 22.31-carat D-color (absolutely transparent) round-cut Flawless diamond earrings (estimate: $7–10 million). Also highly sought after are a 40.43-carat D-color oval-cut diamond (estimate: $5.8–7.8 million), and a 50.05-carat D-color transparent briolette-cut diamond (estimate: $5.5–7.5 million). The auction also features pieces steeped in history, such as lot 95, a ring with the yellowish green Historic Fancy diamond. It was an engagement ring, a gift from Countess Eliza to Count Zygmunt Krasinski, one of the great Polish Romantic poets, whom she married in 1843.
