A spectacular necklace by a leading Surrealist artist couldn’t have come up for auction in Paris at a newsier moment for jewelry: the week of the Louvre heist that saw thieves making off with Napoleonic treasures valued at $102 million.
Salvador Dalí’s Swirling Sea Necklace is fit for a royal, with 18-karat gold arranged in shapes evoking waves or coral reefs that have been bedazzled with diamonds. It doubled its €300,000–€500,000 estimate to sell for €736,600 ($858,518) at Sotheby’s strong “Surrealism and Its Legacy” sale on October 24.
Attached to the gold are cascading tassels of pearls and sapphire and emerald beads. The most striking element is a large, cultured pearl that emerges from the gold and diamonds, positioned to land at the base of the neck, highlighting the intimate notch just above the clavicle. Auctioneer Aurélie Vandevoorde donned the necklace during the sale as she took bids.
Conceived in 1954 by Dalí, it originally belonged to São Schlumberger, who acquired it in 1963, the year of its execution by the New York jewelers Alemany and Co., according to the provenance published by Sotheby’s. Soon after marrying Pierre Schlumberger, a scion of the oil family, São commissioned Dalí to paint her portrait, sitting for him numerous times between 1963 and 1965, according to Sotheby’s.
In 2014, Sotheby’s won the collection of art and jewels amassed by São and Pierre Schlumberger. The Dalí necklace, then estimated at $100,000 to $150,000, was part of a day sale of Impressionist and Modern art. It soared past its estimates to fetch $665,000. The buyer was Anne Schlumberger, one of Pierre’s five children from his first marriage to Claire Schwob d’Héricourt, who died of stroke in 1959. The piece returns to the market following Anne Schlumberger’s death in April.