Set in Memory

François Curiel
Chairman and international director of jewelry, Christie’s Europe

"We sell 10,000 jewels a year, and I like them all. There is one sale, though, from about 20 years ago, that seems particularly relevant to the present. I woke up in Hong Kong on the morning of November 6, 1987, to learn that the world stock markets had crashed. That day we were selling a jade necklace estimated at more than $7 million (almost twice the previous record for the material). It was what we call imperial jade: intensely green but at the same time transparent. The piece was unusually large, containing 27 beads, some as large as two centimeters each, all of the same color and intensity. They sparkled like green diamonds. Jade is thought to bring good luck in Asia. At the sale everybody clapped when the necklace sold for $9.4 million to a Hong Kong collector. They were applauding the price but also a jewelry market that was independent of the stock market."

Courtesy Christie’s