This fall is a great time to do some museum hopping if you have an interest in precious objects from all eras. There's the Hidden Treasures of Afghanistan exhibit which is headed to San Francisco, the Art Nouveau Jewelry exhibit at the MFA in Boston and now Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique at the Cleveland Museum of Art from October 19 – January 18.

This exhibit showcases jewelry pieces and luxury objects from the 1900 Exhibition Universelle at Paris's Grand Palais where Art Nouveau jewelry design reached its apex. The show is a comparative study of the work of three of the greatest designers of the 20th century Peter Carl Fabergé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and René Lalique. It includes rare loans from public and private collections worldwide from lenders such as Queen Elizabeth, Prince Albert of Monaco, Joan Rivers, and Neil Lane and public collections from the Met to the Hermitage. The pieces in the gallery below are just a sample of some of the beautiful objects on loan. Shown above is Edward VII's Faberge enamel cigarette case which was loaned to the exhibit by Queen Elizabeth II.

Imagine having the crown shown above placed on your head. You can't do that but you can get a rare glimpse at the ornate creation. The crown is part of the Czech crown jewels currently on display at Prague castle. The gold crown is studded with 96 precious stones including rubies and sapphires. The AFP reports that it was first worn by the Holy Roman emperor and king of Bohemia, Charles IV of Luxembourg, for his Prague coronation in 1347. The crown is being shown along the the scepter, imperial orb and other priceless objects. Czechs and foreign visitors have only been allowed to view the jewels nine times in the last century. This time it is to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Czech Republic, the 90th anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia and the re-election of President Vaclav Klaus and the object will be display for 11 days.

If you are in New York City, you might want to swing by the Chopard flagship store at Madison and 63rd St. They will be displaying display jewelry pieces worn by Oscar winners from the past five years from March 7-14. Chopard has got a pretty good Oscar streak going: Marion Cotillard (2008), Helen Mirren (2007), Rachel Weisz (2006), Hilary Swank (2005), and Charlize Theron (2004) all wore Chopard jewelry when they won their Oscars. This year's winner, the charming Marion Cotillard who won for La Vie en Rose wore a 64-ct.champagne diamond briolette necklace with a light and dark brown 106-ct. dark brown diamond bead necklace with her mermaid-like Gaultier dress.

Joining the ranks of celebrity artists such as Bob Dylan and Anthony Hopkins exhibiting their work is another iconic figure, Patti Smith. The singer and songwriter will be showing photos taken with her Polaroid camera along with selected found object such as astone taken from the river in which Virginia Woolf committed suicide and slippers work by the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.. The show will open in March at the Fondation Cartier in Paris and is named Land 250, after Smith's camera. There will be 250 Polaroids, 25 drawings and film extracts. Smith has also shot a short film about it and recorded spoken explanations of her works that will be played in the gallery.

There's a certain fascination to "cursed" gemstones. In the U.S. we have the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian, now in London at the Natural History Museum's gemstone exhibit "The Vault," the cursed Delhi Purple Sapphire is going on display. The amethyst stone has lingered in the archives of the museum for years. Unlike the Hope Diamond the amethyst isn't exceptionally rare or pricey but the curse is a fascinating story.

The Times reports that around 34 years ago, Peter Tandy, a curator at the museum, found the stone in the mineral cabinets. it was set in a silver ring decorated with astrological symbols and mystical words with two scarab-carved gems attached. A note, written by Edward Heron-Allen, the amethyst's last owner, said that it carried a curse. He was so disturbed by the stone that he surrounded it with protective charms and sealed it in seven boxes before leaving it to the musuem. The legend goes that the purple stone was brought to the UK by a Bengal cavalryman Colonel W Ferris after being looted from the Temple of Indra in Cawnpore , now Kanpur in 1857. The soldier lost his money and health and the same happened to his son when he inherited it. A family friend who owned it for a while committed suicide. Heron-Allen got the stone in 1890 and suffered misfortunes, he gave the stone away twice and it caused misfortune both times including causing a singer to lose her voice. He was even said to have thrown it in a canal only to have it come back to him later through a dealer who bought it from a dredger. In 1904 he had enough and shipped it to his bankers saying it was to be locked away until after his death.

The curse has even stretched into modern times. Seven years ago John Whittaker, former head of micropalaeontology at the Natural History Museum, took the amethyst to the first annual symposium of the Heron-Allen Society. On the way home he was caught in a huge thunderstorm. A the second symposium he was sick with a stomach bug and on the third symposium he got a kidney stone.

It seems to me that the logical way to stop the curse would be to return it to the temple it came from but that wouldn't make for such an interesting story now would it?

Lovers of fine jewelry may want to make a pilgrimage to Houston between Nov. 16, 2007 to Feb. 17, 2008 to catch the exhibit of Verdura jewels at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Verdura jewels dating from the 1930s with original design sketches will be on public display in Verdura: The Life and Work of a Master Jeweler in The Lester and Sue Smith Gem Vault. Duke Fulco di Verdura (1898–1978) a Sicilian Duke, began his career with the one and only Coco Chanel. She hired him as a textile designer and he went on to become the head designer for her private and boutique jewelry collection. His designs were worn by iconic women of taste including Joan Crawford; Princess Diana; Doris Duke; Katharine Hepburn; Nan Kempner and Greta Garbo. Still not convinced you should go yet? Take a browse through the gallery of the Verdura pieces that will be on display below.

Bob Dylan has had a book of his drawings and sketches published but he has never had an art show. That's set to change with a three-month show called The Drawn Blank Series to be held at the Chemnitz Art Collections museum in Berlin. The show will start on October 28 and run through February 3, 2008. It will feature more than 200 paintings based on the sketches in the Drawn Blank book by Dylan. In the book's preface, Dylan said that the works were intended as sketches for paintings. Now the paintings, which are photo-lithographs transferred to deckle-edged paper and reworked by the artist in watercolor and gouache and will be displayed for the first time in Chemnitz.

Dylan is in some good company with fellow celebrity artists. As we mentioned recently, Sir Anthony Hopkins also had an art exhibit.

The latest event to honor the ten year anniversary of Princess Diana's death is an exhibit of 25 designer gowns that Diana had auctioned off at Christie's a few weeks before her death. The "Diana, Princess of Wales: Dresses for a Cause" exhibit will take place at the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala, Florida from October 14, 2007 through December 31, 2007. The dress owners will be coming from all over the world to deliver their dresses and the "dress reunion" is expected to be the largest collection of Diana's auctioned dresses ever assembled since the original auction in June 1997. Special events such as appearances by Chef Darren McGrady, Diana's personal chef; Jayne Fincher, Royal Photographer; and Nigel Arch, Director of Kensington Palace are also planned. Tickets to the exhibit are $12 for adults and will raise money for breast cancer education, prevention and research initiatives in Central Florida.

Before there was Diana, it was Princess Grace of Monaco who captivated the world. The elegant American actress who won the heart of a prince was one of the world's great icons of style and grace. This year is the 25th anniversary of her passing and a wide variety of activities and events are planned including an exhibit this summer at Monaco's Grimaldi Forum followed this fall by a special tribute exhibit and a first-ever auction of some of her personal belongings at Sotheby's New York to benefit the Princess Grace Foundation-USA. From July 12 through September 23, 2007 at the 43,000-square- feet Espace Ravel in the Grimaldi Forum Monaco, memorabilia including private letters, dresses and fashion accessories, sound recordings and film clips will be on display. Sotheby's New York will hold a tribute exhibition October 15 - 25, 2007, with an auction at the Princess Grace Foundation-USA Awards Gala on October 25.

Luxury hotels in Monaco are offering The Grace Kelly Years packages, featuring tickets for two to the exhibit, a VIP welcome in­-room (including newspaper, fresh fruit, flowers, and a bottle of chilled Champagne) and breakfast each day. It is available at participating Société des Bains de Mer(SBM)hotels, from July 12–September 23, 2007 for $540 to $985 per night, depending on hotel.

The huge diamond shown here is the Tiffany Diamond, the largest diamond currently on display in the U.S. It recently made its debut at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington. The 128.54 carat cushion-cut stone is on loan from Tiffany & Co. until Sept. 23. On top of hte stone is a gem-encrusted bird which was designed in the early 1960's by Jean Schlumberger. It is gold and platinum with white and yellow diamonds and a ruby eye. The priceless yellow diamond has only been worn twice, once by a Rhode Island socialite and once by actress Audrey Hepburn in a promotion for the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The rough stone was discovered in South Africa in 1877 and was 287 carats before cutting.

Ever since I attended the Dangerous Curves exhibition at the MFA back in 2001, I've had an appreciation for guitars as art. The art of the guitar is getting a new showcase at Harod's department store in London. A huge collection featuring guitars customized for Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones will be displayed at the London store. The Born To Rock exhibit includes over 150 guitars including the oldest electric guitar as well as electric guitars specially commissioned for the exhibition. These guitars, from Philippe Starck, Jennifer Lopez, Bryan Adams, David LaChapelle and many more will be eventually be auctioned off for charity. The guitar shown here titled, London Birth of a Cult, was bedazzled by Dior designer, Hedi Slimane. The exhibitions will be at Harrod's until March 3.

[via Channel 4 News]