A gem-encrusted butterfly brooch created by Taiwanese jewelry artist Cindy Chao (趙心綺) was recently acquired by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in the US.
At present there are no details as to when the musem plans to display the piece.
Chao said the Royal Butterfly, a masterpiece completed last year after two years of work, symbolizes the metamorphosis she underwent from a jewelry designer to a jewelry artist.
Chao “generously gifted” the piece to the National Gem and Mineral Collection, according to the museum’s Web site.
The collection contains more than 375,000 individual specimens and includes esteemed pieces, such as the Hope Diamond, the Napoleon Diamond Necklace, the Marie Antoinette Earrings and the Inquisition Necklace.
The Royal Butterfly is set with 2,318 sapphires, fancy-colored sapphires, color-change sapphires, rubies, diamonds, fancy-colored diamonds and tsavorite garnets, according to the museum’s Web site.
Forming the centerpiece of the wings are “four large rough diamond slices stacked atop a pave layer of faceted diamonds.”
According to a spokeswoman for Chao, the Royal Butterfly came to the attention of a New York collector after Women’s Wear Daily — a fashion-industry trade journal — ran a cover story entitled “The Butterfly Effect,” about Chao in its Aug. 31 issue last year.
The collector expressed his wish to buy it from Chao, but was disappointed to learn that it was not for sale.
“He then told us that such a masterpiece should belong to the museum,” the spokeswoman said.
With the assistance of the collector, the Royal Butterfly was given to the museum earlier this year.
In 2007, Chao became the first Taiwanese jeweler to be included in a Christie’s auction.
A colored-diamond and diamond ring by Chao was bought for US$37,500 at Christie’s Dubai sale last year.
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