Lily Safra's famous collection of jewels up for auction!

It’s always a sad day when a generous billionaire philanthropist dies. With such power to do good, they leave a sizeable hole with their passing. However, some choose to do good, even in death. Such is the case with one of the richest women in the world Lily Safra whose jewels are set to go under the hammer in May.

Now I can hear you all wondering, "Lily who"? Yeah, she falls pretty squarely into the pool of "insanely rich people that I have never heard of", which after researching her seems to be a bit of a shame. Here she is.

Photo : Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation

Born in Brazil, Lily amassed her fabulous amounts of wealth through marriage. If I'm being honest, this seems to be a trend amongst the fabulously rich. And not just one marriage, four marriages to be exact, and at the end of her life she was worth a staggering 1 billion dollars. Examples of her vast wealth included an estate on the French Riviera which was a former royal residence and has an estimated value of $506 million. What?! Let’s rewind here a sec. Where in this estate’s description did it mention that the whole house was made of solid gold and built by God himself? I simply cannot imagine how a home could be worth that much. But at least she can live in it. She and I’m sure en entourage of hundreds. But that’s nothing compared to what she spend on art. That is, if you want to call this, art. 

Photo : Artist, Alberto Giacometti

Yep, that’s a life-size bronze sculpture of a very hungry looking man who is, I’m sure, just looking for a cheeseburger. It’s called “L’homme qui marche I” or Walking man and Lily Safra bought him for the paltry sum of $104.3 million dollars which at the time was the highest price ever paid for a sculpture. I can hear the man now, “Madame, Pouvez-vous m’acheter un hamburger?” Translation, Madam, for the love of God, please buy me a burger. Ok, so L’homme is quite a bit more polite than I’m translating, but that’s what he should have said in my opinion. 

Anyways, I seem to have strayed quite a bit from anything relevant so to get back on track, Madame Safra was actually quite generous with her money donating to a multitude of charities as well as setting up many various charities herself for everything from brain studies, to housing families of hospital patients, and helping victims of hurricane Katrina. She was quite the humanitarian as well as an avid art lover. L’homme aside, she seemed to have impeccable taste, especially when it came to her jewelry. And what a collection it is. Spanning over five decades, the rich and varied collection reflects her style evolution from the 1970’s to the present day. Included in the collection are many important diamonds, rubies and sapphires in addition to antique and period pieces. 

Photo : Christie's

The buzz around this auction is tremendous, and rightly so. According to the international head of Christie’s Jewelry department, “Only a connoisseur with an eye as refined as that of Mrs. Lily Safra could have collected such an ensemble of jewels, and only someone with her philanthropic conviction could have expressed such powerful support to worthwhile causes in all charitable fields”. It is in this last show of good will that we see truly what kind of person Lily Safra was. Looking not to pad her sizeable estate, she has made it so that the proceeds from every lot will go to charitable institutions. 

So, now I’m not too familiar with tax law, but I’m thinking that purchasing some of these stunning pieces could be considered tax deductible? So hey, get a fabulous piece of jewelry, help the homeless, and get a tax break. It doesn’t get any better than that! So tell me, which piece are you going to buy and when will you bring it over so that we can all oooh and ahhh over it? Inquiring minds want to know!