JAR Paris, Somerset House Exhibition; Provenance: Lily Safra
[Provenance Lily Safra] Rosenthal, Joel. JAR Paris. First Edition. 2002. Book, dust jacket, and slipcase are all in very good condition—slipcase shows minor rubbing. Laid in is a holiday gift card, “Lily Safra, With my warmest wishes for a happy and peaceful New Year, December 2002.” Co-produced by Pierre Jeannet.
This massive book (eleven pounds) was the catalogue for an exhibition at Somerset House in London. It showcased over four hundred pieces produced by JAR in the mid-to-late years of the 20th Century. Lily Safra, to whom this copy is linked, was a devotée of Joel Arthur Rosenthal and his eponymous jewelry firm, JAR. Safra, who died in 2022, is back in the news this month with Netflix’s documentary Murder in Monaco, about the mysterious 1999 death of her fourth husband. She made headlines for more philanthropic reasons in 2012, when she auctioned off her jewels, eighteen of them by JAR, for nearly $37.9 million to benefit charity. It was the largest single collection of JAR pieces ever sold at auction.
“After donating a pile of jewels to charity at Christie’s Geneva today, Lily Safra had the pleasure of seeing them sell for almost twice their estimates … including 18 JAR jewels that went (of course) for well above estimates.”
--Cathleen McCarthy