When the coveted Palme d’Or trophy is awarded at the star-studded Cannes Film Festival this month, it will come from the Geneva workshops of luxury jeweler Chopard, just as it has for the past two decades.
The co-president of the maison, Caroline Scheufele, personally redesigned the statuette — an ethically sourced 18-k gold leaf motif (last year sprinkled with diamonds) on a crystal cushion.
Along with the Palme d’Or, the house honors a young actor and actress each year with its own Trophée Chopard.
“My family and I are art lovers, especially opera and cinema,” Scheufele tells Alexa, explaining Chopard’s long-running sponsorship of the buzzy film fest. “As [films] have enriched our lives so much, and as I have drawn inspiration from them in designing my collections, it is only natural that we would want to give back and help them continue to thrive.”
Bulgari is also lighting up the big screen, recently announcing a three-year commitment as the official jewelry partner of the Tribeca Film Festival. The brand additionally co-developed two short films — spotlighting Italian women who are groundbreakers in their male-dominated fields — which premiered at last month’s fest.
“Our support of Tribeca Film Festival and the young filmmakers who tell these two stories builds on the powerful legacy of Bulgari and cinema, from the iconic ‘La Dolce Vita’ and Elizabeth Taylor’s ‘Cleopatra’ [both of which featured glamorous Bulgari jewels] until today,” says CEO Jean-Christophe Babin.
New York-based David Yurman, meanwhile, is supporting the arts with a historical spotlight, sponsoring the new “Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas” exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (on view through May 28). The show features 300 artifacts, tracing the development of luxury arts in the Americas as far back as 1000 BC.
“[My wife] Sybil and I have always had a personal connection to the Met — we started coming here on weekends when we were still dating,” says Yurman. “As an artist and a sculptor, I’ve always been fascinated with ancient jewelry and how it became the means to make historical forms contemporary. For me, art and sculpture inform jewelry in every way — there is no separation.”
A lucky thing, indeed, for culture-minded New Yorkers.