Inside ‘Cosmic Splendor: Jewelry From the Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels’ at the American Natural History Museum

As Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is readying to take an all-female crew including Lauren Sanchez, Katy Perry and Gayle King to space on Monday, the American Natural History Museum is highlighting the celestial back on earth. The New York museum unveiled its new exhibition “Cosmic Splendor: Jewelry From the Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels” on Friday, which highlights jewelry designs inspired by space throughout the decades.

“It’s a very cheerful exhibition,” says Alexandrine Maviel Sonet, patrimony and exhibitions director of Van Cleef & Arpels, praising the exhibition’s cinematic staging with mirrors, starry lighting and soundtrack. “It really brings us to the Space Age, this time where everyone was so enthusiastic about space.”

“Cosmic Splendor” follows Van Cleef’s previous 2023-24 exhibition with the museum, “Garden of Green,” which featured jewelry with green gemstones including emeralds, malachite and jade. “[The museum] knew that we were at the time working on a planetary precious object, and they said, well, maybe we could do something around cosmos and planets,” Sonet says.

During the opening week of “Cosmic Splendor,” Van Cleef & Arpels will present its newest “Extraordinary Object” within the exhibit, a jeweled Planétarium automata that presents a scaled model of our solar system. The brand is also the exclusive corporate sponsor for an upcoming show at the museum’s Hayden Planetarium.

“Cosmic Splendor” features more than 60 pieces from the Van Cleef Patrimonial collection in addition to more contemporary pieces lent by private collectors. Jewelry is showcased across seven different display themes, including pieces inspired by the moon, the sun, zodiac, stars, galaxies, planets and celestial movement. There are jeweled brooches inspired by galaxies and shooting stars, a necklace tribute to Jules Verne’s novel “From Earth to the Moon,” timepieces inspired by planetary systems, and pendants reflecting zodiac signs.

“It’s also for us a discovery about our own collection. We realized that indeed we have stars-, moon- and sun-inspired creations that had been made since the very beginning of the maison,” Sonet says of collaborating with exhibition curator Kate Kiseeva, assistant curator in the museum’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences. “In 1907, we have one piece that was called ‘The Star.’ So it’s really interesting to see that this thematic was deeply rooted in our maison.”

The Van Cleef team discovered space-inspired pieces throughout the decades, with a plethora from the Space Age of the 1950s and ’60s. The exhibition includes a 1969 gold textured Moon pendant, which includes a ruby cabochon that marks the landing spot for the Apollo 11 mission; a variation was gifted to the astronauts upon returning to Earth.

“Cosmic Splendor: Jewelry from the Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels” will be on view through Jan. 4, located inside the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery within the Museum’s Allison and Roberto Mignone Hall of Gems and Minerals.

“The museum put pictures of the galaxies that inspired the creations, and you see how deep the studio drawings went,” says Sonet, highlighting the research that informed many of the designs. “I hope that the visitor will feel that really in-depth work that is done for the high jewelry collection.”