Bulgari

Formerly in the Collection of Baroness di Portanova

Cf.: Amanda Triossi, Bulgari – 125 years of Italian Magnificence, Grand Palais, Paris, 2010, pg. 162-163, for the cover of Interview Magazine April 1979 featuring Jessica Lange wearing this pair of earrings.

Cf.: Amanda Triossi, Bulgari, New York, 1996, pg. 41, for the cover of Interview Magazine April 1979 featuring Jessica Lange wearing this pair of earrings.

Bulgari DOMVS, Via Condotti, 2015, where this jewel was exhibited.

Bulgari - 125 years of Italian Magnificence, Grand Palais, Paris, 2010, where this jewel was exhibited, item 277, pg. 162-163 and 343 in the catalogue.

Lot 397, Jewels from the di Portanova Collection, New York, 25 October 2000.

Baron and Baroness di Portanova

‘The best things in life are sun, sex and spaghetti!’

Enrico di Portanova

Enrico ‘Ricky’ and Alessandra di Portanova were a highly glamorous jet-set couple who filled the society pages and gossip columns of the 1970s and 80s with their extravagant lifestyle. They lavishly entertained the glitterati of the period in their magnificent residences in River Oaks Houston, Palm Springs, Rome and Acapulco. Their legendary 32 bedroom villa ‘Arabesque’ in Acapulco was immortalised in the James Bond Movie ‘License to Kill’ (1989) where it served as the over-the-top lair of a Bond villain. The villa was complete with 26 bathrooms, 2 indoor waterfalls and a funicular connecting the house to its private beach.

For all their glamour and opulent living, the origins and extent of the di Portanova fortune always remained something of a mystery. Enrico di Portanova was the grandson of the Texan oil tycoon Hugh Roy Cullen, founder of the Quintana Petroleum Company whom the press dubbed ‘the King of the Wildcatters’. In 1932, much against his wishes, his daughter Lillie Cranz Cullen fell in love with and married an Italian playboy called Paolo who styled himself as a Baron. Though Lillie was never disinherited, her relationship with her father always remained strained. Lillie raised her sons Enrico and Ugo between Los Angeles and Rome. In his youth Enrico di Portanova briefly ran a jewellery store in Rome.

In 1957, Hugh Roy Cullen passed away. Enrico and his brother both received a monthly annuity of 5,000 USD. Though this allowed him to live well, Enrico suspected that this stipend was only the tip of the iceberg. In 1963, he relocated to Houston on a mission to get full accounting from the estate and to claim what he considered his fair share of his grandfather’s immense fortune. He embarked on a decades-long legal battle with the support of his business partner, stockbroker Edward Condon. Together they increased the proceeds from the estate through shrewd investments.

The Baron divorced his first wife, Yugoslavian-born Ljuba Otasevic in 1972. Shortly thereafter, he married the Houston-born Sandy Hovas. He introduced Sandy to society, gave her a glamorous make-over complete with mouth-watering jewels and set out to change her name. Gradually she morphed from Sandy to Sandra to Sondra and finally settled on the more sophisticated sounding Alessandra. The couple established themselves as a fixture of international high society, travelling between their various homes on their private jet baptised ‘The Barefoot Baronessa’. The Baron also held the office of consul to the United States for the Republic of San Marino. A true bon vivant, during this time he was quoted saying ‘The best things in life are sun, sex and spaghetti!’.

The Baroness’ extensive jewellery collection focused on bold, glamorous, colourful 1970s and 80s designs, primarily of the Italian houses Bulgari, Massoni and Marina B. The Baron passed away in 2000. Tragically, Baroness Alessandra followed him only two months later. Her jewels were dispersed at Christie’s New York in October 2000. The sale comprised 205 lots, including a pair of diamond and yellow gold pendent earrings by Marina B and a gem-set and diamond demi-parure depicting monkeys. Elizabeth Taylor acquired these larger-than-life pieces for her equally legendary collection.