Inside the Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love exhibition in Seoul

As its name suggests, the exhibition centres around the three main themes of Time, Nature and Love, exploring the relationship between each one and the maison’s creations from its founding in 1906 up until now. Of these, the most expansive is Time, which takes up one entire floor of the museum.

To best capture the maison’s complex relationship with time, Cappellieri chose to flesh out the concept across 10 different sections. Drawing from Six Memos for the Next Millennium, a book based on a series of lectures written by the late Italian author Italo Calvino, five of these sections are dedicated to values cited by Calvino: lightness, quickness, visibility, exactitude and multiplicity—qualities he believed would define literature over the next thousand years.

The other five sections in Time are dedicated to Paris, the birthplace of the maison; Elsewhere, which references various multicultural inspirations; and Fashion, Dance and Architecture, highlighting the brand’s interaction with each of these realms of creative expression. The exhibition continues to unfold on the second floor across the themes of Nature—expressed through the sub‑themes of Fauna, Botany and Flora—as well as Love.

Better in Time

As the director of the patrimony and exhibitions departments at Van Cleef & Arpels, Maviel‑Sonet worked closely with Cappellieri to select the pieces—especially emblematic ones from the maison’s museum collection (also referred to as the Patrimony collection) as well as 16 private collectors—exhibited in Seoul. The process of curation, she shares, was a tedious one.

“Our [Patrimony] collection has about 2,500 pieces, so to reduce it to 300 took time. But the way we built it is really to have the pieces be consistent with the themes. We started with Time, because it’s the most important chapter and takes up one floor,” she explains. “Elsewhere comprises only pieces that were inspired by other countries and not France. For the Paris section, you’ll see—it’s very obvious—it’s all about Paris. And for Quickness, it’s only timepieces. So we only have pieces very relevant to [each] theme. But [the curation] took time.”

Among the more than 300 creations on display in Seoul are nine that have been recently added to the maison’s collection and which are presented for the first time at the Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love exhibition. Maviel‑Sonet highlights one she is particularly proud to have in the exhibition: a 1937 Jarretière bangle that was once owned by German American actress Marlene Dietrich, who was often photographed wearing it. Most notably, she wore the bangle in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1950 film Stage Fright, and during social events and official ceremonies such as the 1951 Academy Awards. Inspired by garters, the bangle is displayed in the Fashion section of the exhibition.

“It was challenging to be able to have this piece here because we only purchased it in June at an auction in New York,” says Maviel‑Sonet of the remarkable bangle made in platinum and set with 141 diamonds and 73 cushion‑cut rubies. “And [while] it may seem like it’s long enough [time] to be transferred here, it takes a long time to process everything, so we’re very lucky—and that’s why we’re so enthusiastic about this piece being in the exhibition.”

Another jewel on display that Maviel‑Sonet finds most interesting is the Bird clip and Walska pendant showcased in the Visibility section, for two reasons. First, this is a special order creation with a fascinating story behind it. The unique 96.62‑carat briolette‑cut yellow diamond suspended from the bird’s beak once belonged to Polish opera singer and socialite Ganna Walska, who wore it as a pendant in the 1930s. It was later acquired by a new owner in 1971, who requested Van Cleef & Arpels to pair the extraordinary diamond with a bird made in yellow gold and set with emeralds, a sapphire and diamonds. The end result is reminiscent of a stork carrying a baby in a bundle, as it was intended to commemorate the birth of the owner’s son.

Maviel‑Sonet says the piece is also extra special and apt to have in the exhibition as it was the same piece chosen to announce the inauguration of Maison Seoul, Van Cleef & Arpels’s exceptional five‑storey boutique located in Seoul’s Cheongdam‑dong neighbourhood, in 2021.

Love Conquers All

While the biggest focus of the exhibition is on the theme of Time, Maviel‑Sonet highlights that Nature and Love are just as important in representing the spirit of the maison’s collection. “Many of the pieces in the collection that date back to the 1910s are flowers or birds. We have lots of flora and fauna in our collection, so of course nature has a sense with us,” she says. “And so does love, because very often, our pieces have a story about love behind them and sometimes, they’re a gift of love.”

A 1945 Lovebirds brooch displayed in the Love section represents the maison’s iconic Lovebirds creations first launched in the 1940s. Combining inspirations of both love and nature, the pair of lovebirds made in platinum and set with diamonds are perched on a yellow gold branch with briolette‑cut diamond flowers. They are huddled together, almost creating a heart‑shaped silhouette, and are tenderly looking in the same direction with their ruby eyes.

There are many more incredible jewels to be discovered at the Van Cleef & Arpels: Time, Nature, Love exhibition, including some of the maison’s early precious objects such as a lighter modelled after the Colonne Vendôme in Paris, glamorous minaudières, night lights and more. Maviel‑Sonet hopes that visitors to the exhibition will be surprised at what awaits them in D Museum.

“I hope that they’ll feel that jewellery is about art,” she says. “Jewellery is part of the creative arts for sure, but we forget sometimes that it’s real art. You’ll see all the savoir faire behind the pieces and all the techniques, such as our Mystery Set, which our craftsmen spent many hours developing. I’d like people to see these pieces as art pieces; as a collection of the museum.”

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