It’s called Van Cleef & Arpels: The Art and Science of Gems. In case you are from the parts of Singapore, you can go and visit this exhibition dedicated to the history of one of the most famous brands (rightly) of the jewelry. If, however, you don’t go in the Asian city, you can watch the pictures that we publish: they are some of the 450 pieces on display (23 April to 14 August 2016) at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore. The exhibition combines art and crafts, history and geology: from the heart of the earth, where you extract the precious stones, and get to the fine workmanship of the House of the Place Vendôme. Visitors can follow two complementary paths: explore the scientific processes involved in the formation of minerals (they are exposed samples of 250 minerals provided by the National Museum of Natural History in Paris), and at the same time look closely at the historical archive collection Van Cleef & Arpels. “It shows a very special and different from the usual, in particular for this journey through the mineral: he has a very educational process,” commented Jean Bienayme, international marketing and communications manager for Van Cleef & Arpels.
According to Catherine Cariou, director of equity at Van Cleef & Arpels, the exhibition is organized around seven themes, many of which have come to define the jeweler’s creations in the last century: the abstractions, dancers and fairies, fashion, influences, nature, precious objects and icons. Do not miss some of the most famous creations of the jewelry company, such as the Zip necklace, technical prowess commissioned by the Duchess of Windsor in 1938, allowing a necklace to be made into a bracelet with a hinge-jewel or the flower clip 1967 with Burmese rubies for 15.77-carat, previously owned by Maria Callas. Federico Graglia