The Cologni collection of watches and jewelery goes to auction in Milan by Sotheby’s. An opportunity for Cartier enthusiasts ♦ ︎
Precious jewels for a good purpose. The collection of watches and jewels belonging to Franco Cologni, writer and entrepreneur passionate about watchmaking and jewelery, and his wife Adele Tamiso Cologni go to auction in Milan. Jewels and watches will be sold by Sotheby’s: a total of 72 lots with pieces dating from the early twentieth century to the year 2000. The proceeds will go towards a new project of the Cologni Foundation in Milan: an exhibition and cultural space dedicated to the excellence of art professions, at an important Milanese museum.
The collection also boasts the presence of several jewels from the 1930s, such as the splendid Cartier brooch / clip dated 1930 and estimated at 20,000-30,000 euros. The Cartier diamond bracelet, estimated at 40,000-60,000 euros with an original case, is from 1932. Dated 1962 is the Bird Flight brooch in gold, emerald, rubies and diamonds, estimated at 30,000-50,000 euros. The auction will also present the Cartier Panthère Collier, with housing, estimated at 9,000-13,000 euros. The two splendid panthers are removable and convertible into a brooch.
It is no coincidence that there are many Cartiers in the collection. Indeed, Cologni, Cavaliere del Lavoro and Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, was the founder and director of the international magazine Cartier Art. For forty years he collaborated with Cartier to become president of Mondo and, following the incorporation of Cartier into the Richemont Group, has become executive chairman of the entire jewelery and watch sector of the Group. He is also the founder and President of the Cultural Committee of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva. In 2016, together with Johann Rupert, Chairman of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, he founded the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, also based in Geneva, whose purpose is to enhance creativity and art professions at an international level creating emp
loyment, supporting culture and enhancing the savoir-faire of the territories.
The Cologni Foundation of the Craft Professions is a private non-profit institution, established in Milan in 1995. Its initiatives are aimed above all at young people: training new generations of Masters of Art, saving the excellent craft activities from the risk of disappearance that threatens them, is in fact one of the objectives that the Foundation pursues. Thanks to the new exhibition space, the Cologni Foundation will thus be able to give visibility and value to the work of the art masters, giving young people new vocations.
The collection also consists of many collector watches. There are dozens of copies signed by Cartier, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Frank Muller, Jaeger-LeCoultre and other prestigious brands. In some cases the watches are limited editions or dedicated to the collector. Among the most appealing lots in the collection are the La Monégasque wristwatch by Roger Dubuis from 2012 in pink gold, presented at auction with an estimate of 17,000-25,000 euros.
A limited edition in stainless steel of the Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Rhone-Fusterie of Audemars Piguet, dated around 2008 is estimated 8,000-12,000 euros. Even the Saltarello clock by Cartier, from 1997, is a limited edition made of platinum, estimated at 8,000-12,000 euros. And the Himalaya wristwatch in white gold and black diamonds, dated 2004 and presented at auction with an estimate of 8,000-12,000 euros, is still from the Parisian Maison.
Online sales from October 28th to November 6th.
Exhibition in Milan, Palazzo Serbelloni
Wednesday 30 October 2019, 11.00-17.00
