Today, however, the prospect of a painful and public legal battle hangs over the dynasty. In 2011, when Bulgari was sold in a €3.7 billion deal to French conglomerate LVMH, the fortunes of the family looked blissfully secure. The Bulgaris were soon established on the Manhattan scene: Anna, a stern, striking presence, Nicola, with his patrician shock of hair, and watchful blue-grey eyes, and three daughters – attractive, well educated, popular, and heirs to vast wealth. Only a few years after arriving in New York, the family opened its gargantuan Fifth Avenue store, Andy Warhol calling it a ‘museum of contemporary art’. Nicola would later recall: ‘We were stuffing the jewellery in our suitcases to sell it in suites across America.’ Anna, meticulous and sociable, made connections that boosted Bulgari’s profile across the US. In 1972 Nicola and Anna had moved their family from Italy to New York with a single aim in mind – expansion. The 1970s were the beginning of the epoch of Italian style dominance, when every prominent shopping avenue sparkled with the storefronts of Gucci, Ferragamo and Bulgari.
His company’s sparkling creations were coveted by famous names including Grace Kelly and Liz Taylor, who called the boutique on Via Condotti ‘that nice little shop’. Sotirios moved to Rome and opened his first store – changing his name from Voulgaris to Bulgari – in 1884. Alongside his brothers Paolo and Gianni, Nicola Bulgari had built up the brand from a business begun by his silversmith grandfather, Sotirios, in Greece. The Anna Bulgari Family Trust was intended to provide a steadily lucrative income for the couple’s three daughters, Veronica, Ilaria and Natalia, securing her daughters’ independence after her death.īulgari is a name so intricately entwined with fine jewellery that it barely needs introduction. Shortly after her divorce from the jewellery tycoon Nicola Bulgari in 2005, Anna Bulgari created a trust drawn from the proceeds of her settlement. It seemed like a simple solution to a very high-net-worth concern.
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