HONG KONG – L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, presents “Precious Coral, from Curiosity to Treasures”, an exhibition dedicated to the precious material.
From May 23rd to October 11th, 2026, the exhibition in Hong Kong gathers some 120 jewelry creations and exceptional specimens on loan from distinguished collections and institutions.
The most significant presentation on campus to date, it proposes examining precious coral through three lenses: Biology and Gemology, Craftsmanship, and History.
Precious coral has been worn, traded, carved, polished, revered, and mythologized for millennia; it was often mistaken for a stone or a plant. The exhibition opens with addressing that misconception: coral is an animal.
Precious coral lives in deep, dark waters, far below the sunlit reefs commonly associated with tropical seas. Unlike reef- building corals that rely on the relationship with photosynthetic algae, precious coral species such as
Corallium rubrum and Corallium japonicum grow slowly at depths up to several hundred meters, building dense, branch- like skeletons prized for their natural hues – ranging from pale blush and salmon to oxblood red and creamy white.
