Cartier exhibition opens at Melbourne's NGV with hundreds of items never seen in Australia

More than 30 tiaras, dazzling necklaces and bracelets dotted with hundreds of diamonds are among almost 400 pieces of Cartier jewellery on display at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne.

The exhibition contains pieces owned and worn by Hollywood icons Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly, along with Andy Warhol, Princess Margaret and Rihanna.

The NGV has partnered with London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) to deliver one of the largest exhibitions of its kind.

"There are some rubies that are the best in the world in this room, emeralds and sapphires in the hundreds of carats, all exceptional quality," V&A senior curator of jewellery Helen Molesworth said.

Almost 300 of the items have never been exhibited in Australia.

"It's really other-worldly to look at the quality and just the ambition of the designers and the wearers," NGV director Tony Ellwood said.

A local connection

Several pieces worn by Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba tell a local story amongst the exhibition's international celebrities.

NGV senior curator of international exhibitions, Miranda Wallace, said the Melbourne-born performer, who rose to global fame in the early 20th century, was a customer of the jewellery firm as it was becoming known internationally.

"She was the exemplary client of Cartier in the very early 20th century," she said.

Jewels worn by the performer in private and on stage, but never exhibited until now, provide an insight into the performer's life over a century ago.

Dr Wallace said one such event was a performance at the Melbourne Town Hall in 1902.

"She was basically studded with Cartier jewels, turquoise and diamond necklace, suspended pearls, and those pieces are what we have on display," she said.

"To get an image of what she must have looked like, almost lit up on stage, glittering with these wonderful jewels is really remarkable."

Art or advertising?

Displaying exquisite pieces of jewellery sold by one of the world's most luxurious brands for a profit begs the question: does it belong in an art gallery?

Helen Molesworth believes it does, saying Cartier is one of the world's most artistic jewellery houses.

"You have an object that has been designed by somebody, it has been crafted, it has had all of these elements put together into it, to create something that's not just a single painting," she said.

"Jewellery itself is an art form like no other."

Dr Wallace agrees the stories of the jewellery's wearers is what makes the ornaments worthy of display at Australia's largest gallery.

"There are stories that are opened by these objects that are a window onto the social world of the 20th century, but also the political world," she said.

The jewels were transported with the utmost secrecy, with NGV staff saying gallery security met global standards.

Exhibition organisers refused to give a total value of the items on display — only saying the collection was "priceless".

The exhibition runs until October 4 at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.