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"\"Bulgari is the only word Elizabeth knows in Italian,\" actor Richard Burton quipped about Elizabeth Taylor at the start of their affair during the filming of Cleopatra in 1962. Burton continued the Italian tutorial during their marriage, celebrating milestones in their relationship with tokens from Bulgari. Many of his lavish gifts to Taylor are showcased in the exhibition \"Bulgari: 130 Years of Masterpieces\" at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas.\n\nBulgari has long been known for its famous fans, and the precious pieces share exhibition space with photographs of bejeweled icons, such as Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Gisele B\u00FCndchen, Julianne Moore, Julia Roberts, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, and Jennifer Aniston. The exhibition also includes two diamond necklaces borrowed from the collections of local socialites Lynn Wyatt and Joanne King Herring.\n\nBulgari is one of a handful of luxury companies that have been in business since the 19th century, and the exhibition offers an opportunity to survey the way jewelry styles\u2014and fortunes\u2014have evolved. Beginning with a modest silver necklace from the 1880s, when the first shop opened in Rome, Bulgari went on to create mega-stone pieces: a staggering 118-carat emerald necklace in the 1960s; dazzling multicolor stone bib necklaces; and chain necklaces embedded with antique Roman coins, a 1970s innovation. Diana Vreeland, Vogue's legendary former editor in chief, reconfigured Bulgari's signature snake belt, coiling it around her neck. Today, Bulgari's styles retain that marvelously engineered flexibility, but they are also more linear and less three-dimensional.\n\nThe show, featuring jewelry from the 19th century to the present day\u2014plus photographs and material from the company's archives\u2014is the result of several decades of research and collecting as Bulgari reacquired many of its own heritage pieces at auction or from original owners.\n\nThrough October 5 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science; hmns.org\n\nClick to view a slide show of extraordinary jewelry from Bulgari's latest exhibit.\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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