BEYOND Words

At Van Cleef & Arpels, haute joaillerie often takes a page from literature, with collections based on such eclectic texts as Grimms' fairy tales and the novels of Jules Verne. Now, a new exhibition at Milan's Palazzo Reale finds its curatorial framework in journalist and novelist Italo Calvino's collection of criticism, Six Memos for the Next Millennium. More than 400 jewelry pieces, watches, and objets dart— Princess Grace of Monaco's 77-plus-carat diamond tiara and Elizabeth Taylor's lion necklace among them—will be organized under the titles of Calvino's memos, including "Lightness," "Multiplicity," and "Exactitude," and more broadly into the three poetic pillars ofVan Cleef's heritage: time, nature, and love.

DAISY SHAW-ELLIS