CARTIER in Melbourne – a history of art pieces of jewelry exhibition 

Featuring nearly 400 extraordinary jewels, timepieces and precious objects, alongside rare archival materials including original design drawings, sketchbooks, photographs and more, the 2026 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces® presentation, “CARTIER”, is the largest exhibition on the global jewelry house ever staged in Australia. 

The Melbourne Winter Masterpieces® exhibition “CARTIER” will be on display at NGV International from 12 June – 4 October 2026. Admission fees apply. Information and tickets are available via the NGV website: NGV.MELBOURNE  / Exhibition created by the V&A in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria and in collaboration with Cartier. 

About the exhibition we should know… 

* A dazzling selection of Cartier creations owned and worn by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Rihanna, Andy Warhol, Princess Margaret, The Duchess of Windsor, Dame Nellie Melba, the Maharaja of Patiala, the Begum Aga Khan III, and heiresses including Daisy Fellowes and Barbara Hutton. 

* The exhibition charts the evolution and artistic legacy of the house, including its transformation at the turn of the twentieth century by brothers Louis, Pierre and Jacques Cartier, grandsons of the house’s founder Louis-François Cartier. 

* The exhibition features show-stopping works from the V&A and Cartier Collection, as well as key international loans from British Museum, Qatar Museums, Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris, Collections of HSH the Prince of Monaco, Al Thani Collection and private lenders. The exhibition features a wealth of archival material drawn from the Cartier Archives in Paris, London and New York. 

* Among the exhibition’s most arresting highlights is a collection of more than 30 magnificent tiaras. Includes Cartier’s celebrated Scroll tiara (1902), crafted in the house’s signature “Garland style” and worn by Lady Clementine Churchill at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and by Rihanna on the cover of W magazine in 2016. The exhibition  opens with one of the largest tiaras in the exhibition, the Manchester tiara, commissioned in 1903 by the “dollar princess” Consuelo Montagu, Dowager Duchess of Manchester who supplied all the diamonds herself. Other tiara highlights include the Sun tiara of 1907 with a 32-carat fancy intense yellow diamond in its centre; and the Art Deco diamond and platinum Halo tiara of 1934, which was inspired by ancient Egypt and owned by Her Highness the Begum Aga Khan III.  

* The exhibition includes a 1951 necklace gifted to Elizabeth Taylor by her third husband, film producer Mike Todd, while on holiday in the French Riviera in 1957. The exhibition also features the many Cartier jewels owned by Grace Kelly following her marriage to Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, on loan from the collections of H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco. They include a multi-strand pearl and coral necklace (1958) and a 1960 gold and pearl poodle brooch, recalling her pet poodle Oliver. 
 
* The exhibition also focuses on Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, who was an important early client of Cartier when the firm was becoming known internationally for its Garland Style jewels, often featuring floral swags and bows set in platinum and precious gems. The show also features necklaces and bodice ornaments that the world-famous soprano owned and wore both on and off the stage, as well as an autographed 1902 photograph of Melba owned by Pierre Cartier. 

* On display is an intricate diamond rose clip brooch (1938) worn by Princess Margaret at her sister’s coronation, as well as a major selection of exceptional jewels belonging to Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor and wife of former King Edward VIII. 

* Named for their distinctive combination of carved rubies, emeralds and blue sapphires, a rich selection of Cartier’s iconic Tutti Frutti jewels also features, including the most spectacular example of Tutti Frutti jewellery ever created by Cartier: an Indian-inspired necklace commissioned by the Parisian socialite Daisy Fellowes in 1936. 

* Additionally, there is a standout selection of Cartier timepieces that showcase the jeweller’s industry-leading innovations in watch and clock making. On display is also a selection of works featuring opals, including a beautiful 1928 Art Deco bracelet mounted with diamonds and five large black opals, as well as a contemporary bracelet (2015) with 189.345-carat precious black opals from Australia. 

About the CARTIER collection… 

During the 1970s, Cartier began to gather pieces that had been produced in its earlier years; jewellery, timepieces and other precious objects were collected for preservation, leading to the establishment of the Cartier Collection in 1983. Today, the Cartier Collection includes pieces dating from as early as the 1850s until as recently as the 2020s. These pieces act as material records of Cartier’s 180-year history of style and creativity.  With approximately 3,500 pieces and still growing, the Cartier Collection has sparked the attention of museums worldwide. Since the first major exhibition in 1989 at the Musée des Beaux-Arts–Petit Palais, Paris, the Cartier Collection has been showcased by some of the world’s most renowned institutions in 45 monographic exhibitions, including at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, most recently at Capitoline Museums in Rome, and now in Melbourne. 

Installation view of CARTIER on display from 12June to 4 October 2026, at NGV International Melbourne. Photo: Sean Fennessy