LILY SAFRA PRIVATE COLLECTION Quite A Collection

CHRISTIE'S is gearing up for the auction of a private jewellery collection with an estimated worth of over $20 million (£12.6 million approx.), including the largest private collection of creations by revered jeweller Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR) ever to be offered at auction. All proceeds will be donated to charities including Elton John's AIDS Foundation.

Featuring 70 lots, the collection of Mrs Lily Safra features important diamonds, rubies and sapphires, fine antique and period jewellery - as well as 18 pieces by JAR, created specifically for Mrs Safra between the Eighties and Noughties.

"When it includes the largest group of creations by JAR ever to be offered at auction, it is bound to create a sensation," said François Curiel, international head of the Christie's jewellery department. "And when the entire proceeds of the sale are to be shared between 20 hand-picked charitable institutions in the four corners of the world, this landmark sale rises to a whole new level. Only a connoisseur with an eye as refined as that of Mrs Lily Safra could have collected such an ensemble of jewels, and only someone with her philanthropic conviction could have expressed such powerful support to worthwhile causes in all charitable fields."

The auction will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva on Monday May 14.











LISA NIVEN 21 March 2012
http://www.vogue.co.uk/jewellery/news/2012/03/21/lily-safra-jar-jewellery-auction-at-christies