The extraordinary jewelry creations by the famous Maison from its beginnings to the present day.

This book presents the legendary jewelry and precious objects of Van Cleef & Arpels, and how they relate to time, nature and love. Time is a fundamental element for both creativity and craftsmanship. Time gives objects their shape; defines their style; determines their function, social utility, and the choice of materials and techniques; indicates origin; hones taste; and reveals context. Time is interpreted through eight values inspired by Italo Calvino’s Lezioni Americane, or Six Memos for the Next Millennium, to honor the iconic pieces created by Van Cleef & Arpels over the years, from Art Deco masterpieces to the illustrious Zip necklace, gravity-defying Mystery Set, or celebrated Minaudières―some of the most important innovations in the history of 20th century jewelry-making.

Nature plays an equally important role for Van Cleef & Arpels as an ever-present source of inspiration and tribute, embodied in unique gems and timeless masterpieces drawing on flora and fauna. Van Cleef & Arpels is founded on love, the most powerful energy in the world. Each object is handcrafted with love, and Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry has sealed some of the century’s most legendary love stories.

In a brilliant historical and critical essay, illuminated by a stunning iconographic selection of jewelry, precious objects and archive materials, this work describes the Maison’s eternal values of time, nature and love.

Since ancient times, fashion jewellery in Italy has been, and still is, an important component of clothing. The history of fashion cannot be written without mentioning its jewels. This book presents 200 Italian fashion jewels that, spanning from the era of La Dolce Vita to the Pret a Porter of the Eighties, from '90s Minimalism to the Neo Baroque of the new millennium, define the aesthetic mirror of society and show the transformation of styles and customs, ambitions and conquests of women, the evolution of shapes and innovations of materials and new technologies. DIVA! Italian Glamor in Fashion Jewellery tells about fashion jewellery in its creative intersections with Italian excellence: craftsmanship, design and fashion. It is a typically Italian story based on the ability to combine creativity, manufacturing and industry, art and technology, beauty and innovation. The masters of costume jewellery enter a dialogue with the great stylists and the talents of design, three heterogeneous visions with a single great protagonist: the Italian fashion jewel. Text in English and Italian.

The Museo del Gioiello in Vicenza - the only example in Italy entirely dedicated to jewellery - is renewed every two years: without permanent collections, it offers biennial exhibitions of unique and exclusive jewels in the evocative spaces of the Basilica Palladiana. For the third biennium since its inauguration (on display until 2020), the museum hosts 310 pieces of inestimable value, exhibited in nine thematic sections curated by as many internationally renowned experts. In presenting the masterpieces of this exhibition, this catalogue gathers the contributions of the curators which, far from the usual museum criteria of chronological or stylistic classification, restore the complexity of the jewel through multiple points of view, where the ancient dialogues with the contemporary and the masterpieces of the past are juxtaposed with those made with the technologies of the future. Text in English and Italian.

Showcases Alexandra Albini's unique, hand-made jewellery pieces. Feminine shapes often embrace large baroque pearls or precious gems that are not cut according to conventional standards but are roughly shaped or left in their natural crystal habit. The gems are chosen for the beauty of their colours and for their inclusions, valued because they add a natural authenticity to the stone. After all, aren't inclusions nature's fingerprint, worthy of being celebrated rather than condemned as flaws? These are the principal ingredients of Alexandra Albini's jewellery collection, as it is revealed in the pages of this book through the empathic eye of celebrated photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri. Text in English and Italian.