Glanzstücke: Extraordinary objects in dialogue at Vienna’s MAK Museum

EXHIBITIONS | HAPPENINGS | WORLD OF CABANA

Established in 1863, the MAK in Vienna is the second oldest museum of applied art in the world, famous for its outstanding collections and archives. It is therefore no surprise that Van Cleef & Arpels, a master in high jewellery from 1906, decided to show pieces from the rich patrimonial collection here. Gianluca Longo explores Glanzstücke.

BY GIANLUCA LONGO | HAPPENINGS | 30 JUNE 2026

Exhibition view, Glanzstücke, Chapter Rhythmic Designs © Ivan Erofeev.

An exhibition of Van Cleef & Arpels' pieces de resistance with the MAK museum’s masterpieces, Glanzstücke – now on show at the Viennese institution – offers an intelligent dialogue between extraordinary objects. Most of the chosen 156 museum pieces are very rare, some displayed and exhibited for the first time because of their fragility, and sit beautifully with the 385 high jewellery pieces.

The show opens with one of Van Cleef & Arpels' most famous creations: the 1955 Zip necklace. Inspired by the zippers in flight suits, it was innovative and is still impressive for its design and technique, since it is transformable into a bracelet through a removal blade system. The jewelry is shown as a piece of applied art and sets the tone of the entire show, combined with a 1906 golden folding screen designed by Koloman Moser, co-founder of the Wiener Werkstatte. The screen has its own mechanism of movable panels, showing female figures made of marbled paper collages, a popular material at the turn of the century.

Glanzstücke is divided into six themes from sources of inspiration, motifs, materials, and techniques. They are as follows. 

Wanderlust: This section is about travel, and centers around two important objects. One is the miniature model of the yacht Varuna, probably one of the first creations of precious objects, from 1906, an exquisite ship made of yellow gold, engraved silver and enamel, equipped with an electric bell. The other is the so-called ‘Portuguese’ carpet, of Indian make, from the 17th century, owned by the Viennese Habsburgs. It features ships with travellers in them, all wearing European clothing.

The Izmir necklace is also a show stopper. Made in 2011, it is represented as an architectural complex of a middle eastern skyline, with diamond encrusted towers with moorish arches, and bulbed domes of cabochons of amethysts and pink tourmalines. The handwork in white gold recalls the mashrabiya technique. Here it’s paired with a 1570 miniature from the Hamzamana, the Mughal manuscript - one of the rarest and most precious pieces in the museum collection.

Architecture: This section of the exhibition is all about the beauty of constructions. Van Cleef & Arpels became a key figure of art deco, at the dawn of 1930, and of modernism. One of the stated aims of the Wiener Werkstatte was investing practical objects with luxury and value, already in 1903, when it originated.

This is why the handled basket by Josef Hoffman, a perforated metal sheet of geometric shape, is in juxtaposition with three bracelets of 1936 of geometric architectural model, where the square cut rubies or sapphires are mounted with the ‘mystery set’ technique. 

In another window of this section, a lidded goblet made of worked ivory mounted around an ostrich egg is next to a yellow gold egg powder case and a twisted gold and pearls necklace, of similar design with the ivory handles.

Rhythmic Designs: This section focuses on the geometric patterns from the MAK’s collection of fabrics, placed as the background for some of the precious pieces. Here, the most frequent patterns are characterised by rhythmically arranged motifs, either derived from nature (flowers and animals) or abstracts (circles and stripes). The 1976 necklace with amethyst tourmaline and diamonds seems to have originated from the 1928 gouache by Mathilde Flögl, an exquisite beads design for the Wiener Werkstatte.

On Stage: This section is a dutiful tribute to classic Vienna – opera, dance and music, which have always played important roles for the city life. The MAK preserves many objects related to the fanciful world of theatre, from costumes, ball gowns and accessories, to posters, invitations, and opera programs.

All the pieces here show the whimsy and poetry of the stage. The rather dramatic and famous 1828 Rhenish ball gown, with the bottom featuring sculptural floral decorations made of silver threads, sits very well with the yellow gold and diamonds Treviso necklace, of 1970. The iconic ballerina clips and brooches, a signature of Van Cleef & Arpels’ craftsmanship from the 1940s are also a key part of the show, as is the ruby and diamond brooch belonging to Maria Callas and the ruby and diamond bracelet of Marlene Dietrich, which she wore in the Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Stage Fright.

Metamorphoses: Transformability is the theme of this final section. In jewellery the idea of metamorphosis is inseparable from ‘transformable’ pieces. The construction of these pieces allows them to change functions or divide into sections: tiaras that become necklaces, earrings used as clips and brooches, necklaces that become bracelets.

At MAK there are countless objects that can be categorised as metamorphosis: a decorative object reveals itself to be a desk set, or simply a trompe l’oeil. Here a simple cord is behind the idea of an elegant necklace (from 1949) that looks like a cord. It is crafted from a twisted yellow gold cord as a testament of the excellence of chain-making workshops, and it’s knotted at the trot and finished with two capuchin knots.

Similarly, a large silk tassel, from 1877, is a decorative object where the sculptural structures are made of wood covered in colorful silk, decorated with mesh and cords. It was given to the museum by Razenhofer & Heller, the famous passementerie workshop. 

A late 19th century English tablecloth, by arts and crafts Goodyer, printed with bows, is the perfect background for diamonds brooches in shapes of bows. And an old macrame lace, delicately intricate, interacts with a finely worked diamond necklace.

Nature & Cosmos: The final room of the exhibition is dedicated to flora, fauna and cosmos – frequent themes in both the collections of Van Cleef & Arpels and the MAK. This section shows how nature occupies a prominent place in the arts, and speaks of a desire to experiment and understand the world around us.

Van Cleef & Arpels has from the beginning continued the 19th century legacy of highly realistic plant and floral compositions. Nature also plays an essential part in the applied arts, in all forms. The colorful footed dish, of 1660 French provenience, is a typical piece for a cabinet of curiosities, by the beautiful stem with delicate enamel painting that combines mythological, scenic, and ornamental elements with foliage and flowers. The precious 1950s flowers brooches could easily have been a part of this theme too.