What I’ve learned: Max Fawcett, global head of Jewellery

Working in the jewellery business is a family affair. My great-uncle moved to Tokyo in the 1960s and started dealing in cultured pearls. My grandfather, who was based in London, began working with him, and then my dad joined the family business when he was 16. A lot of cultured pearls come from Australia, so my dad would go on work trips there and come back with suitcases full of strands of cultured pearls, and later gold jewellery and gold objects, which he predominantly sold to Brunei. It was a great introduction to the world of jewellery.

I’ll always remember the glamour of the Christie’s Important Jewels sales at the Palace Hotel in St Moritz. Collectors would go skiing all day and then attend the big gala auctions in the evenings, wearing huge fur coats and glamorous evening wear. The next day, my dad and I would go to the boutiques in St Moritz to see all the items that had been sold at Christie’s the day before. I’m sad that we don’t host sales there anymore, but it just wasn’t financially viable.

I began my career in Munich, as an apprentice with an antique jeweller called Ernst Färber, a multigenerational firm that started out as silversmiths in the late 17th century. I remember handling an extraordinary early-19th-century coloured diamond ring in the form of a snake, and rows of exceptional natural pearls. It was a great place to learn, because it handled such a range of jewellery, from 19th-century pieces to modern-day creations. It was there that I realised I wanted to pursue a career in jewellery.

I was 23 and living in New York when Rahul Kadakia, who is now chairman of the Christie’s Global Luxury Group, first called me about a job opening at Christie’s in Geneva. I really didn’t want to leave New York, as I was having the time of my life, but it was an amazing opportunity, and so two months later I got on a plane to Geneva. That was almost 10 years ago, and now I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the world.

The Oppenheimer Blue is one of the most beautiful stones I have ever seen. You rarely see blue diamonds in emerald-cut shape, especially above 10 carats, with that richly saturated, vivid blue colour that everyone is looking for, so it was incredibly exciting to offer it for sale at Christie’s. We sold it in 2016 for almost CHF 57 million (around $57 million), then the world record for any diamond ever sold at auction. I remember the excitement in the saleroom that night. It was only my second Geneva sale, and I knew then that I was in the right place.

Diamonds are the most condensed store of value that exists, and red diamonds are the rarest and most valuable of all. Probably less than a handful of reds over two carats have ever been found, which drives the price up. A two-carat red diamond recently sold for $8.5 million per carat. That’s $17 million for a stone so small you could easily swallow it.

I’ll never forget the adrenaline rush of seeing Le Grand Mazarin for the first time. Shortly after I started working for Christie’s, a client called up and said they had a stone with historic provenance that they’d like us to go and see in Belgium. It was only when we had arrived on site that they told us the diamond in question had once belonged to Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister to the kings of France from 1642, who bequeathed it to Louis XIV on his death in 1661. It then spent 225 years as part of the French crown jewels before its 1887 sale, when the royal treasury was dispersed and its whereabouts became unknown. I remember calling the historian that we worked with at the time about our discovery, and she almost fell off her chair. We went absolutely bananas when the client called to say that we had won the pitch and would get the stone in for sale.

Working on the Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence sale in 2019 was one of the highlights of my career. Spanning 500 years of history, it featured a diverse selection of jewels, art and objects from the Al Thani Collection, many of which you would not usually see at auction. Among the nearly 400 lots offered for sale were legendary Golconda diamonds, dazzling coloured stones, signed Art Deco pieces by Cartier and extraordinary bejewelled objects, as well as swords and daggers once owned by Indian rulers. The sale made $109,031,875, the highest total for any auction of Indian art and Mughal objects, and the second highest for a private jewellery collection. After the final lot was hammered down, the buzz in the saleroom was electric.

Traditionally, Belle Epoque and Art Deco jewels were seen as the gold standard when it came to the manufacturing and workmanship of jewellery. But we’ve seen a shift in collectors’ interests over the past five years, as some clients feel that those finer, more delicate pieces are not as wearable as jewellery from the second half of the 20th century. Now, the real demand is for big, bold pieces from the 1970s and 1980s. Those by Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels, with yellow gold and semi-precious stones, are particularly popular with our clients.

There’s something very satisfying about connecting a buyer with a seller, especially when the synergy works perfectly. Buyers will often go through Private Sales when they are looking for something extremely rare or specific, because we know where some of the most coveted masterpieces in the world are located. For instance, a longstanding client of Christie’s was looking for a large blue diamond as a gift to celebrate a wedding anniversary. After three years and many different proposed options, we finally found the perfect stone. It needed repolishing, since it was an old-cut diamond with chips and bruises around the girdle, and a new mounting was commissioned to suit the client’s taste. We then sold it for $20 million.

The old bank vaults beneath the cobbled streets of Geneva are like something out of a movie. I love going down there and seeing the safes stacked on top of each other, wondering what’s in each one. Sometimes the clients themselves haven’t looked in the boxes for many years — or haven’t ever seen inside them — and are equally surprised to find the treasures within. About a year ago, we visited a client’s deposit box in Geneva and discovered the most incredible selection of emerald jewellery, ranging from five to 30 carats, alongside beautiful Kashmir sapphires and old-cut diamonds. All the pieces were signed, with fantastic provenance and archival documents.

We’ve been market leader in Jewellery for almost 30 years, but there’s still so much potential for us to grow. I’m a big believer in India as a massive engine for growth, as well as the Middle East and the Far East, where many of our jewellery buyers are now based. We’re always looking at ways to innovate and reach new clients in these regions. In 2020, we were the first department to believe we could sell high-value luxury online. People thought we were mad, but today online auctions are one of the key cornerstones of the business.

Social media is incredibly important, especially when it comes to educating our clients about the wide range of services we offer and attracting a new, younger set of buyers. A client recently reached out to me on Instagram with an exceptional large diamond belonging to their family, which was subsequently sold in a Geneva live sale.

Luxury is now the main entry point for new buyers to Christie’s and is growing fast. In 2025, it brought in a total of $795 million and was the second top-performing department by sales. It was also a particularly strong year for jewellery, with the Mellon Blue achieving CHF 20.5 million. I think there are several reasons why luxury is performing so well: it’s one of the most approachable categories at Christie’s, because online sales provide a good entry price point and you can easily look up the price of comparable pieces. In addition, younger buyers are looking to purchase items for themselves, not just as gifts, and there’s a renewed interest in vintage jewellery.

If I could hold any diamond in the world, it would be the Koh-i-Noor. It originates from the Golconda mines in central southern India and weighs an incredible 105.6 carats, making it one of the largest cut diamonds in the world. It changed hands between various empires in south and west Asia, until it was given to Queen Victoria in 1849. In 1937, it was set in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, which is currently on display at the Tower of London.

Magnificent Jewels is on view 8-13 May 2026 at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, Geneva, before the sale on 13 May. Jewels Online is live for bidding 7-19 May. Explore the Geneva Luxury Week sales