Inside the $10 Million Sotheby’s Auction of Pauline Karpidas’s High Jewelry Collection
Following landmark sales of her London and Hydra estates, the legendary art patron’s personal collection of rare JAR and Belperron jewels heads to the block in New York on December 8
Art patron Pauline Karpidas has always marched to the beat of her own drum. Known for filling her unique homes in London and Hydra with Surrealist masterpieces by the likes of Picasso and Magritte, the legendary art patron applies that same fearless and unique eye to her personal jewelry collection—curating an incredible trove where high-jewelry masterpieces by JAR sit alongside rubies once owned by the Duchess of Windsor. Now, Sotheby’s is set to auction 70 of her most extraordinary jewels in a dedicated New York evening sale on December 8, estimated to realize $10 million.
A visionary tastemaker, Karpidas has always been led by a strong personal instinct, and the market has tended to follow. Just over a year ago, the contents of her London home brought in $137 million, well above its $81 million pre-sale estimate. The two-story London apartment overlooking Hyde Park, designed with French decorator Jacques Grange and London gallerist David Gill, was a mashup of animal prints, bold color, and stacks of books. The pieces in her Hydra home sold at auction in Paris in 2023 for over $39.6 million, more than twice the estimate.
Amassed alongside her art, her personal jewelry is bold, whimsical, and eclectic, and an essential expression of her artful way of life. “There has always been something magical about wearing a work of art,” says Karpidas. “Jewelry has always held a special place in my life because, more than almost any other object, it has the power to carry memory.”
Karpidas often credits her husband, Constantine “Dinos” Karpidas, with opening her eyes to “the beauty of wonderful things.” A collector in his own right, Dinos focused on 19th-century works and Impressionism, acquiring paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet at auction. However, an encounter with the Greek gallerist Alexander Iolas gave Pauline’s love of art a new focus. Together, she and Dinos went on to become some of the world’s most influential collectors of Surrealist and contemporary art. As their collecting evolved, the couple became fixtures of the international art scene. Among Pauline’s close friends were Pierre Matisse, Paloma Picasso, Max Ernst, Edward James, Jan Krugier and John Richardson. With a distinctive personal style, she was spotted at art parties, galas, and dinners wearing extraordinary jewels in a unique, layered style, pairing Belperron cuffs with sculptural JAR pieces. Her jewels caught the eye of Andy Warhol at the Factory, and he ended up painting her portrait in 1978. At first, she says, Warhol “wasn’t even remotely interested in talking about art with me, only my jewelry.”
The top lot of Karpidas’s sale is a JAR chalcedony ring set with a pink diamond that appears to be trapped in ice, estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million. Joel Arthur Rosenthal, better known as JAR, admits clients to his Paris atelier by invitation only, which makes auctions one of the few ways in.
Other JAR pieces include a 1990 diamond and basalt ring ($450,000 to $650,000), a sapphire and platinum ring ($300,000 to $500,000), and a sapphire and diamond necklace whose padlock-shaped pendants recall stylized, Surrealist-inspired hearts ($200,000 to $300,000). His early floral pendant necklace ($250,000 to $350,000) recalls the work of artist Claude Lalanne, who made Karpidas 23 bespoke jewels and handbags, which fetched over $681,300 at the London sale. There are also some extraordinary pieces by another legendary jeweler, Suzanne Belperron, among them an asymmetrical aquamarine and diamond necklace-brooch ($150,000 to $250,000).
Impressive provenance runs throughout the sale. Karpidas bought a circa 1945 Seaman Schepps rock crystal bracelet ($50,000 to $70,000) and a Verdura amethyst and diamond brooch with earclips ($20,000 to $30,000) at Sotheby’s 1988 sale of jewelry and watches from Warhol’s estate. She also bought a pair of Cartier ruby boule bead earrings and a matching ring ($100,000 to $150,000) at the 1987 sale of the Duchess of Windsor’s jewels. Her early 18th-century sapphire and gem-set reliquary cross ($80,000 to $120,000), frequently worn to galas, once belonged to Cardinal Francesco Martelli.
The rest of the roster is just as varied. Highlights include a Cartier Tutti Frutti clip-brooch ($150,000 to $250,000), a Cartier emerald, onyx, and diamond bracelet from around 1925 ($200,000 to $300,000), a rare Chanel bracelet from the 1930s ($80,000 to $120,000), and jewels by Boucheron, Paul Flato, and Jacques Lacloche. Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s chairman for Europe, calls them jewels that “make no attempt to whisper. They reflect a woman who trusts her instincts completely, collecting with an extraordinary combination of curiosity, confidence and an appetite for the unexpected.”
Jewelry is having the kind of moment at auction that aficionados would call overdue. Sotheby’s jewelry sales rose 35 percent in 2025, and at Christie’s Geneva in May, 99 percent of lots sold and 84 percent cleared their high estimates. Sotheby’s December 2025 sale, its first evening jewelry auction in New York in more than a decade, realized $13.9 million against a high estimate of $8 million, with every lot sold; JAR and Belperron anchored it. The strength is found in jewels with a maker’s name and a fascinating story or strong provenance behind them. In a volatile year, buyers have been moving toward tangible assets, and signed jewels are increasingly priced like art.
Pauline Karpidas’s jewels will go on view at the iconic Breuer building on December 2, six days before the sale on December 8. “It feels like the right moment for these jewels to find their next home,” Karpidas says.