Maison Reza’s fine jewelery arrives at Tefaf in New York ♦
It is not uncommon for jewelers to have lives or adventurous stories behind them. This is especially true for the great jewelery makers from the East or the Middle East. And it is also the case of Alexandre Reza, who died in Paris in 2016 at 94, but with a story worthy of a novel. Suffice it to say that he was considered the greatest collector of gems of modern times, before becoming a jeweler. And from 1 to 5 November the jewels of the Maison that he founded can be seen at the New York edition of Tefaf, the great exhibition dedicated to objects of art, antiquities and luxury and collectible jewels. Today the Maison is run by the founder’s son, Olivier, at the Place Vendôme site.
Alexandre Reza was born in 1922 in Moscow, son of a jeweler. Like other Russian families, after the October Revolution the Rezas moved to France, first to Nice and then to Paris. He began his career as a diamond expert, traveling a lot to find every stone. Alexandre Reza has also supplied gems to jewelry brands such as Boucheron, Bulgari, Cartier, Chaumet, Harry Winston, Louis Gérard and Van Cleef & Arpels. And as has happened to many other merchants and gemstone experts, at one point he decided to turn himself into a jeweler. But of gram class: only high jewelry with rare diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires. According to the Sotheby’s auction house, “movement, lightness, composition and harmony are the key words of his works”.
But mishaps were not missed: in 1994 armed thieves stole gems worth about $ 21 million in the jeweler’s salon in Paris. On the other hand, in May 2010 Sotheby’s sold a fancy 5.02 carat blue fancy diamond set in a toi-et-moi ring next to a 5.42-carat white diamond of 6.3 million dollars, setting a record price for a jewel of Reza. Margherita Donato
