Angelina Jolie Wears Maria Callas’s Cartier Panther Brooch in Venice
As news broke this morning that Netflix had acquired Pablo Larraín’s biopic, Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as the legendary opera star Maria Callas, Jolie herself took to the red carpets of the Venice Film Festival ahead of its premiere today.
She wore a simple black sheath tank dress and her hair long, and pinned to the top of the dress, a legend in its own right. The brooch by Cartier is its signature panther design in gold and onyx with emerald eyes. It sits on an impressive piece of white agate. It was created by the French house in 1972 and that same year bought by none other than Maria Callas herself. The panther is, of course, a Cartier icon. The first three-dimensional Cartier Panthère was created in 1948 for the Duchess of Windsor, using a 116.74-carat emerald from her husband’s own collection. The cat, in gold and onyx, was perched right above the enormous stone. Strong women, strong jewelry.
Callas herself had an impressive collection of jewelry from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Harry Winston, and more. She is believed to have received many of her pieces as gifts from her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini as well as from Aristotle Onassis. Where it all is now is one of jewelry’s big mysteries. Many pieces were sold at a Sotheby’s auction in 2004 but the seller’s identity was never revealed. Some people believe Meneghini’s maid inherited most of it. But the Cartier panther brooch sitting on the white agate? We know exactly where that is right now: in Venice, on Angelina Jolie.
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