Van Cleef & Arpels Jewelry Exhibit Sets Attendance Record

  A view of “Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels” at Cooper-Hewitt.  Photo credit: Matt Flynn, Smithsonian

They came, you saw and everyone conquered.

The exhibit, “Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels” at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum attracted a record-breaking 172,000 visitors during its 20-week run, the Smithsonian said.

The exhibition examined the Parisian jewelry firm’s significant historical contributions to jewelry design and design innovation, particularly during the 20th century. Organized by Sarah Coffin, curator and head of the museum’s Product Design and Decorative Arts department, the exhibition featured more than 350 works, including jewels, timepieces, fashion accessories and objets d’art by Van Cleef & Arpels, many of which were created exclusively for American clientele, along with design drawings, commission books, fabrication cards and imagery from the firm’s archives. The exhibit ran from February 18 to July 4

The exhibition galleries at Cooper-Hewitt are now closed as it begins a $64 million capital project that includes enlarged and enhanced facilities for exhibitions, collections display, education programming and the National Design Library, and an increased endowment. When the museum reopens in 2013, gallery space will increase by 60 percent, the Smithsonian said in a statement. During the renovation, Cooper-Hewitt’s usual schedule of exhibitions, education programs and events will be staged at various off-site locations, including “Design with the Other 90%: Cities,” on view at the United Nations from October 15 till Jan. 9, 2012. The museum’s Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden and the Shop at Cooper-Hewitt, which will remain open this summer without an admission fee.