If you’ve ever wanted to stand inches away from the jewels that once adorned Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Margaret, Melbourne is about to make that possible. The NGV’s 2026 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces presentation, Cartier, opens at NGV International on 12 June — and it is, quite simply, unmissable.
The largest Cartier exhibition ever staged in Australia, the show brings together nearly 400 jewels, timepieces and precious objects, with close to 300 works never before seen on Australian soil. Adapted and expanded from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s celebrated London exhibition, it charts the maison’s evolution through the pieces worn by the women — and men — who defined their eras.
The celebrity highlights alone justify the ticket price. On display is a 1951 ruby and diamond necklace gifted to Elizabeth Taylor by her third husband, Mike Todd, during a French Riviera holiday — a piece Taylor herself described as looking like “red fire.”
Grace Kelly’s jewels, on loan from the Collections of H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco, feature alongside a diamond rose clip brooch worn by Princess Margaret to her sister’s coronation. The Duchess of Windsor’s iconic Flamingo brooch and her extraordinary Panther sapphire clip — set with a 152.35-carat cabochon sapphire — are also present.
Then there’s the tiara room. A final gallery displaying 24 tiaras includes Cartier’s 1902 Scroll tiara, worn by Lady Clementine Churchill at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and, decades later, by Rihanna on the cover of W magazine. The full stop on a sentence about power, beauty and what it means to be dressed by the best.
Cartier runs at NGV International from 12 June to 4 October 2026. Tickets via ngv.melbourne.
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