Maurice Tempelsman Collection, Including Jackie Kennedy Gifts, Heads to Sotheby's

Sotheby's New York will auction the collection of Maurice Tempelsman on June 24. The late philanthropist and companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis amassed a diverse trove including 18th-century snuffboxes, a Ptolemaic gold snake armband, a Paul Klee drawing, Renaissance jewelry, and a Robert Frederick Blum painting. Six lots with Kennedy provenance are expected to draw particular attention: an Ancient Greek alabaster head she left him in her will, two of her sketches (one of a horse, another of Botticelli's Birth of Venus), a Cartier watch, and a Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co. gold and pearl dress set. Among the snuffboxes, a gold and gardstone "Steinkabinett" box by Christian Gottlieb Stiehl, valued at $600,000–800,000, last appeared at auction in 1906. Sotheby's head of Vertu and Gold Boxes Alexandra Starp called it "a true discovery" and "a masterpiece rooted in history and science."