The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond, Va., is remounting an exhibition it staged in 2017 that celebrates the work of Jean Schlumberger—the iconic jewelry designer most famous for his vibrant work for Tiffany & Co. in the mid-1900s—in China.
The museum is partnering with the National Museum of China (NMC) in Beijing to stage the show, which it has retooled and retitled “Jean Schlumberger: Twentieth Century Treasures from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts” from its original name, “The Rachel Lambert Mellon Collection of Jean Schlumberger.”
The exhibit will be on view May 31–Sept. 8, 2019, and is the result of a five-year cooperative agreement between the two museums. The Schlumberger show is meant to toast the 40th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the United States and China.
The partnership “promotes the exchange of exhibitions, facilitates loans of artwork from each museums’ collection, and allows the museums to jointly organize major exhibitions together,” according to a statement from VMFA, which will debut a second exhibition at NMC later this year.
The VMFA’s original Schlumberger exhibition traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Fla., after its 2017 debut in Richmond.
The exhibit comprises more than 100 pieces (both jewelry and accessories), including costume jewelry Schlumberger conjured for fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1930s and pieces that helped make Tiffany & Co. America’s most venerable jeweler and a household name. There are, of course, plenty of animal and flower designs—both of which were Schlumberger staples.
“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is honored to be the only American institution to have a partnership with the National Museum of China of this caliber,” said VMFA director Alex Nyerges in the same statement.
The National Museum of China is the largest museum in the world, encompassing more than two million square feet and housing a permanent collection of more than one million objects. It was established in 2003 when the National Museum of Chinese History and the National Museum of Chinese Revolution merged.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is considerably smaller, but it is the only art museum in the United States open 365 days a year with free general admission.
Top: Jean Schlumberger jewel (photo courtesy of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
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