Lily Safra Charity Jewelry Auction Includes Largest JAR Collection; Could Fetch $20 Million

Caption: Left: Lily Safra. Right: A ruby and diamond Camellia flower brooch by JAR created for Safra in 2003. Estimate: $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

The jewelry collection of famed philanthropist, Lily Safra, will be up for auction at Chrisite’s Geneva on Monday May 14, with all proceeds to be donated to 20 different charitable institutions. The collection includes the largest single-owner selection of jewels by JAR ever to be offered at auction.

Regarded as a major philanthropist of our time, Safra is also a discerning connoisseur. This jewelry collection reflects her refined taste and its evolution through five decades, from the 1970s to the present day, the international auction house said. Featuring 70 lots, the sale at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues is estimated to fetch more than $20 million. It includes important diamonds, rubies and sapphires, as well as an array of fine antique and period jewelry.

A special section of the sale will be dedicated to a group of 18 jewels by JAR, the majority of which were created specifically for Safra by the renowned jeweler between the 1980s and 2000s. It is the largest private collection of creations by JAR ever to be offered at auction.

“Only a connoisseur with an eye as refined as that of Mrs. Lily Safra could have collected such an ensemble of jewels, and only someone with her philanthropic conviction could have expressed such powerful support to worthwhile causes in all charitable fields,” said François Curiel, international head of Christie’s Jewellery Department.

Lily Safra has carried on the philanthropic tradition of her husband, Mr. Edmond J. Safra, one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished bankers and founder of the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. Since 2000, she has chaired this foundation, which supports hundreds of projects related to education, science and medicine, religion, culture, and humanitarian relief in over 40 countries.

She is a passionate art and jewelry collector, and has provided assistance to several institutions, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Musée du Louvre, where the “Salle Edmond et Lily Safra” honors the works she and her husband donated.

All the proceeds from the sale of the collection of Lily Safra will benefit the following 20 charitable institutions:

Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, Rwanda
Children Action, Geneva
Claude Pompidou Institute for Alzheimer’s Disease, Nice, France
Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital, Tel Hashomer, Israel
Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
Elton John AIDS Foundation (worldwide)
Fight AIDS Monaco
Henry Street Settlement, New York
Hopes and Homes for Children, Romania
Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève
Imperial College, London: Edmond J. Safra Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology & Edmond J. Safra Chair in Radiochemistry
Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord Disorders, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris
Keren Shemesh, Israel
King’s College, London: Edmond and Lily Safra Parkinson’s Research Fellowships
Le ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris
New York University, Parkinson and Movement Disorder Center
Royal Opera House, London
Université Joseph Fourier, Institut des Neurosciences, Bâtiment Edmond J. Safra & Institut Clinatec, Centre de Recherche Edmond J. Safra, Grenoble, France
University of Toronto and Toronto Western Hospital, Canada: Edmond J. Safra Program in Parkinson’s Disease (Dr. Anthony Lang & Dr. Andres Lozano)
Water Treatment Program, Amélia Rodrigues, Bahia, Brazil