SWISS JEWELLERY DESIGNER AND ART COLLECTOR
SHOWS US AROUND HER STUNNING VILLA AND VINEYARD ESTATE DEEP IN THE TUSCAN COUNTRYSIDE
It seems there’s nothing Suzanne Syz can’t do. With her ex-husband, Eric Syz – on the board of whose bank she sits – she’s built a huge collection of contemporary art by the likes of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cindy Sherman.
But Swiss-born Suzanne is best known for her own creations, luxury jewels so playful and colourful that they easily qualify as Pop Art themselves. From the first design she sold – to movie legend Elizabeth Taylor – to her 1,001st, she spent two decades dazzling women worldwide. Then, in 2019, she began pouring her considerable energies into a whole new venture: a historic wine estate in Tuscany.
Now Suzanne is ready to show off beautiful Fattoria di Caspri, whose villa dates back to Roman times. And she tells us: “Art, jewellery, wines; they’re all creative projects. I have an active mind; I need new challenges all the time. And as I am an incurable optimist, I always believe that things will work out.”
Trusting her instinct has proved a sound strategy, Suzanne says, ever since she and Eric headed to New York as newlyweds. She recalls: “It was the 1980s, I was 22 years old and New York was the place to be. I was a friend of the great Bruno Bischofberger, gallerist, collector and discoverer of the greatest talents of the times. He opened my eyes to the incredible moment we were living through.
“I met Annina Nosei, who organised the first Jean-Michel Basquiat show in her gallery while he was still painting graffiti in the subway. I helped her hang the paintings. I was especially fond of Jean-Michel and liked to go to his atelier and watch how he mixed the paints.”
COMMISSIONING WARHOL
When the couple’s first child Marc was born in 1982, her thenhusband made a special gift to her: a portrait of mother and son by Warhol, who was then at the height of his fame.
But when she went to his studio, The Factory, to pick it up, Suzanne couldn’t hide her disappointment. “Andy asked: ‘What’s wrong?’ and I answered shyly: ‘It’s very nice, but it’s not me; I look tight-lipped and serious when I’m actually a cheerful person.’ ‘How would you like to look?’ he said. And I ventured: ‘Well, I’d like to be smiling.’”
