We are gradually bidding 2021 goodbye, and that can only mean one thing: it’s advent calendar season!
While you can expect luxury brands to put a lot of thought and creativity into theirs, Tiffany&Co has catapulted itself to the top of the leader board with its calendar which pays homage to one of the most influential artists in the last century, Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The featured drawing is the artists’ 1982 work, Equals Pi, named after an array of mathematical equations that appear on the right side of the work, alongside scrawled text, figures and of course, the artist’s signature crown and skull motifs. This is the second time Tiffany would feature Equals Pi alongside its own pieces: just a couple of months back, the painting made a prominent appearance in its About Love campaign starring Jay Z and Beyoncé.
The 2021 Tiffany&Co advent calendar is a four-foot-tall cabinet made from white oak with the Basquiat painting covering its front. Inside sits twenty-four bow-wrapped boxes with numbered hangtags and filled with Tiffany jewellery and other gifts. The actual content of these boxes is not yet known, but you can be sure that whatever is in there is as opulent and exquisite as any Tiffany piece is.
But the jewellery brand wants this year’s advent calendar to do more than grace your shelf and adorn your body: according to a press release, the brand will make a $250,000 donation from the sales of the calendar to Free Arts NYC, a non-profit that provides art and mentoring programs to underserved communities.
So, if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the ultimate jewellery lover who also happens to love art – and it does not matter if that person is you – then you should make an appointment on the brand’s website now before the limited quantities, retailing for $150,000 per piece, sells out.