words by Carol King Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida will auction her Bulgari jewellery for charity. Lollobrigida is to sell 23 jewels from her Bulgari collection at auction house Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels Sale on 14 May in Geneva, Switzerland. Her collection includes pieces created in the 1950s and 1960s, worn at notable points in her career. The screen legend will donate part of the money raised from the sale to help fund an international hospital for stem-cell research. The important jewels were highlights of the 2009 to 2012 international touring exhibition ‘Bulgari – 125 Years of Italian Magnificence’. Key pieces from the collection will travel to Hong Kong, London, New York and Rome before returning for exhibition in Geneva in advance of the sale. Highlights include a 1954 diamond necklace/bracelet combination worth an estimated US$300,000 to US$500,000 worn by Lollobrigida as a tiara when she received her 1961 Golden Globe for World Film Favourite. Also up for auction is a pair of natural pearl and diamond pendant earrings made in 1964 worth an estimated US$600,000 to US$1,000,000, worn by Lollobrigida on numerous occasions, including when she met Princess Margaret at the premiere of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in London in 1967. Commenting on the sale, Lollobrigida said: “I have been lucky enough to be given many roles in life – as an actor, a mother, a photojournalist, an Ambassador for [the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations], and as an artist. I began collecting jewels from Bulgari in the 1950s and 1960s, drawn by the wonderful craftsmanship and distinctive style of these pieces. They accompanied me on many journeys – both professional and personal – and are redolent of those times and the extraordinary people I met along the way. “These days I am focusing my time on my career as a sculptor. After more than 65 years I have come full circle, returning to the skills I first learned at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome. A sculptor has little need for jewels, and so, I have decided the time is right to share them with other collectors. In so doing, I can also help a cause very close to my heart, that of stem-cell research – treatment, which I believe should be freely available to every child.” David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s Switzerland, and Jewellery, Europe and Middle East said: “These exceptional jewels are evocative of both a woman, and an era. Not only do they reflect Gina Lollobrigida’s brilliance, but they are among the finest designs created by Bulgari in the ‘dolce vita’ years of the 1950s and 1960s.”
Gina Lollobrigida's Bulgari jewels in Sotheby's auction preview from The Jewellery Editor on Vimeo.
