Timeless beauty: Stories of precious stones

"I think jewelry is my dream and my life. It has always been something really special," said Vincent Meylan, editor-in-chief of French tabloid magazine Point de vue. Meylan shared his stories on the occasion of French jewelry brand Van Cleef & Arpels' exhibition in Beijing.

Having written about jewelry and legendary figures around it for 25 years, Meylan is the author of many books such as Boucheron: The Secret Archives, Mellerio: Jewellers to the Queens, and the recent Van Cleef & Arpels: Treasures and Legends.

His lecture last Sunday, held at the Today Art Museum, centered on the history of VCA's iconic designs, most of which are on display at the Beijing exhibition.

First presented in 2012 at Paris' Musée des Arts Décoratifs, this exposition is traveling for the first time, taking up residence in China from April 21 to August 5. Enriched with new acquisitions, it is comprised of over 360 creations from both the company's public and private collections.

Displayed chronologically, they demonstrate the intriguing historical and aesthetic evolution of VCA's style, studded with technical inventiveness and passed down through generations of virtuoso craftsmen.

For Meylan, jewelry is made of three things: stones, savoir-faire and desire. "Precious stones are miracles of nature. It takes millions of years to create a diamond, then someone finds it in a mine and afterward puts it on a piece of jewelry," he said in his lecture on Sunday.