Schlumberger Auction Features Dali's Surrealist Swirling Sea Necklace
October 09, 25
(IDEX Online) - Items of jewelry owned by the French-born architect, heiress, arts patron, and philanthropist Anne Schlumberger will be among 90 lots offered by Sotheby's in a series of sales of her possessions.
The sales, called The Schlumberger Collection, and starting on 21 October, are expected to raise at least $85m.
Anne Schlumberger, who died aged 85 in April, was the daughter of Pierre Schlumberger, an oil executive and art collector, and Claire Simone Schwob d'Hericourt, a French aristocrat.
The family moved from France to Houston, Texas, USA, when she was just a year old, following the German invasion during World War II.
Highlight of the jewelry collection is Salvador Dali's surrealist Swirling Sea necklace of sapphires, emeralds, pearls, and diamonds, which has an estimate of $350,000 to $585,000.
It features 61 sapphire beads (48.27 carats), 61 emerald beads (89.97 carats), 67 diamonds (4.74 carats, 125 Oriental pearls and one large South Sea Pearl.
The Swirling Sea necklace was conceived in 1954 by Dali and made in 1963 by New York jeweler Carlos Alemany.
It was a gift from Dali to Sao Schlumberger, Pierre's second wife, and it sold at Sotheby's for $665,000 in November 2014, way above its high estimate of $150,000.
The Schlumberger sales will also include François-Xavier's 1976 hippopotamus-shaped bar cart, known as Hippopotame Bar, which is expected to sell for at least $7m.
Sotheby's describes the collection as "an eclectic and multi-century assemblage that reflects both the dynastic heritage of the Schlumberger family and Anne Schlumberger's independent eye, cultivated through her lifelong engagement with art, architecture, design, and Surrealism".
The collection will be auctioned in a series of sales in Paris, Hong Kong and New York.
Pic, courtesy Sotheby's, shows the Swirling Sea necklace.