The Artistry of Luxury
This is a question I have been pondering over the years, having spent decades at Christie’s working with magnificent jewels, precious stones, watches, grands crus and now handbags.
Is it not curious that jewelry is not classified as “art” within the art industry? Paintings, sculptures, furniture, porcelain—all kinds of exquisite objects are considered works of art. Yet, jewelry is consistently regarded as “luxury.”
Perhaps there is a divine aspect at play. Most jewels originate from a rough gemstone—a diamond, ruby, emerald, a garnet, whose quality is determined by nature. All subsequent human intervention—cutting, designing, and setting—serves to enhance the stone. Consequently, focus and value still center on the gemstone itself, relegating artistic contribution to a secondary role.
Alternatively, it could be that jewelry is often an artwork without artist attribution. Painters paint, sculptors sculpt, carpenters build, with each work often traceable back to an individual artist. In contrast, jewelry typically emerges from a collaborative effort involving cutters, designers, setters, wholesalers, and retailers. This team dynamic means that no single artist usually stands out, save for a few celebrated maestros or groundbreaking designers, among them Suzanne Belperron, Dinh Van, Jeanne Toussaint, or JAR. Time after time, it is the retailer, the brand or house—Boucheron, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels or Harry Winston—that takes center stage as the face presenting the finished work to the world.
Another possible reason could be the lack of deeper communication; jewelry rarely aims to provoke an intellectual response, often serving solely as a gift, an expression of beauty or an investment tool.
If art denotes creativity and craftsmanship that generate beauty, excitement, and value, then jewelry embodies these qualities perfectly, affirming its status as a genuine art form. And like all great art, it serves as a key investment commodity, governed by its own set of rules and market intelligence. Its wearable nature brings immense joy and emotional significance to countless men and women, further augmenting its worth.
I am prepared to arm-wrestle anyone who claims that jewelry is anything less than art.
—François Curiel
