KAZUMI ARIKAWA OF ALBION ART COMPANY, TOKYO – A GEMGENÈVE VISITOR

It has been a busy year for Kazumi Arikawa, Chairman of the Albion Art Company, Tokyo, one of the most important collectors of historic jewellery in the world and an enthusiastic visitor to last year’s inaugural GemGenève. Since his visit, the Albion Art Company has sponsored the blockbuster Jewellery exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, while L’Ecole, the Paris-based, Van Cleef & Arpels-supported school of Jewelry Arts organised an exhibition, in Tokyo, in late February and early March, of Art Nouveau jewels from Mr Arikawa’s collection. The Art Nouveau Jewellery exhibition, showcasing masterpieces by Lalique, Fouquet, Vever and Boucheron, curated by jewellery historian and GemGenève team-member, Vivienne Becker, was one of a series called Through The Eyes of a Connoisseur, opening up private collections around the world. Meanwhile, the huge success of the jewellery show at the Metropolitan Museum, Jewelry – The Body Transformed, which closed last month, is good news for us all, opening up the whole subject of Jewellery to new audiences, bringing more depth, showing the full richness and complexity of the art of the jewel. Just as we do at GemGenève.