ByIANSlife Features

April 29, 2020 (IANSlife) Sotheby’s has auctioned a vintage 'Tutti Frutti' Bracelet by Cartier for $1,340,000. Created circa 1930, the sensational jewel had never before appeared at an auction, having been passed down through descendants of an American family for more than 30 years.

Pursued by 5 bidders, the Art Deco masterpiece far-surpassed its estimate of $600/800,000, becoming, the highest price for any jewel sold in an online sale as well as the highest price for any jewel sold at auction in 2020, at any house. Only one other work has achieved a higher price in an online sale at Sotheby’s (Friedrich von Hayek’s Nobel Prize in Economics from 1974, sold in 2019 for $1.5 million).

Catharine Becket, Head of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels Auctions in New York, commented: “The result achieved for this bracelet is testament to the fact that, even under the most challenging of circumstances, the demand for great art endures. Tutti Frutti jewels have always held a special allure for collectors, capturing the West’s fascination with the ‘exotic’ at a time when travel was relatively limited, much as it is today. Now, of course, we can connect with the touch of a button, which allowed us to engage with bidders worldwide. We look forward to bringing more great jewels to the marketplace in the months ahead as we expand our calendar of online sales.”

Sotheby’s online auctions of jewelry have raised $7.4 million to-date in 2020 (combined estimate $4.7/6.5 million), with an exceptional 93 percent of all lots sold. These sales regularly attract participants from over 30 countries, and with 30 percent of all bidders transacting with Sotheby’s for the first time. This continues a trend observed across all of our global jewelry auctions in 2019 (both live and online), in which more than half of all jewelry buyers placed their bids online.

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