Style Edit: Anna Hu achieves the big 4 as the most renowned museums in London, Moscow, Paris and Boston add exquisite pieces of her high jewellery to their permanent collections

Jan 16 , 2025

Contemporary jewellery artist Anna Hu (right) with British Museum curator Jessica Harrison-Hall. Photo: Handout

The contemporary jewellery artist mixes naturalism and exuberance in her otherworldly creations, which draw inspiration from traditional Chinese art and classical music

Contemporary jewellery artist Anna Hu, whose classical music training informs her creative innovation, has achieved a triumphant quartet – four of her otherworldly creations are now ensconced in four storied museums across the world.

The piece that achieved Hu’s fabulous four was her Enchanted White Lily bangle, which is now part of the British Museum’s permanent collection. As this exquisite bracelet takes its place in London, there is a breathtaking brooch in Boston, a magnificent hand jewel in Paris, and another extraordinary brooch in Moscow.

Anna Hu (right) with Emily Stoehrer, jewellery curator at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Photo: Handout

Intertwining the romance of poetry and the realism of flowers, the Enchanted White Lily bangle holds a 30.48-carat natural rubellite at its heart, embraced by rock crystal-infused yellow enamel stamens and lustrous silver petals. A curved “stem” of gold, brass and silver hugs the wrist. It was inspired by the traditional Chinese flower paintings of Qing dynasty artist Yun Shouping, and Schumann’s A Poet’s Love, Op. 48-111. British Museum curator Jessica Harrison-Hall has likened it to 19th century court jewellery.

Anna Hu’s Enchanted White Lily bangle, acquired by the British Museum in London. Photo: Handout

Underscoring growing global recognition of Hu’s artistry, this acquisition by the venerable British institution follows on the heels of her Enchanted Ania brooch entering the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Praised for juxtaposing a naturalism in jewellery with large-scale design and new materials, the piece is a spiritual nod to Zhang Daqian’s Orchid painting. Its soft petals are handcrafted in titanium, its stamens adorned with spinels, while the form of the leaves is reminiscent of Chinese calligraphy.

Anna Hu’s Enchanted Ania brooch, now housed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Photo: Handout

Two years ago, Hu’s boldly exuberant Yin Yang hand ornament was welcomed into the permanent collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Specially created for American artist Cindy Sherman in 2010, the articulated jewel sees two sinuous gem-encrusted snakes – symbolising East and West – eyeing each other, and biting a yin-yang stone of onyx and white mother-of-pearl as they entwine the wrist.

Anna Hu’s Yin Yang hand ornament is part of the Paris-based Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ permanent collection. Photo: Handout

Before these other honours, in 2018, Taiwan-born Hu became the first Asian contemporary jewellery artist whose signature work was acquired by the State Historical Museum in Moscow, thereby creating a cultural bridge between China and Russia. Her China Red Magpie brooch is exceptionally luxurious: more than 500 gems, including blue, purple, pink and yellow sapphires, rubies, tourmalines and moonstones – plus an outstanding South Sea pearl – form a vibrant forest of flowers and white gold branches in which a pair of birds frolic. Its composition was influenced by Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring by Giuseppe Castiglione, the Jesuit artist who served in the imperial court of three Qing emperors.