![Kozminsky owner Kirsten Albrecht in her Bourke Street store.](/content/dam/images/g/u/1/o/t/v/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gu1asu.png/1485774146431.jpg)
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It's a Melbourne institution frequented for more than a century by the city's wealthy establishment, by prime ministers, business leaders and visiting Hollywood movie stars. Its jewellery, silver antiques, objets d'art and other shining wares were bought to mark life's great moments: engagements, weddings, 21st birthday parties and other special events.
Now, after more than 165 years in operation, Melbourne's oldest jewellery house, Kozminsky, will close its Bourke Street doors on February 10. All remaining stock will be sold on March 4 through auction house Leonard Joel in what is expected to be the most valuable single-owner jewellery auction held in Australia. The more than 600 pieces of antique and contemporary jewellery, plus other small decorative antiques, are conservatively estimated to be worth between $770,000 and $1.2 million.
The closure comes as big international jewellery houses, from Van Cleef & Arpels and Graff to Tiffany & Co and Bulgari, expand into Australia or substantially increase their footprints here, and as the consumer march towards buying things online, even high priced items, continues. Antiques in general have had a tough time globally over recent decades, with younger generations tending to be more interested in modern design than silver that they have to polish or brown furniture that won't go with the architect-designed home or harbour view.
Kozminsky owner Kirsten Albrecht, who bought the business from her brothers in the 2000s after it was left to them by their father Kurt, said the three-level shop in the heart of Melbourne's financial and legal sector had become "cumbersome" and required a lot of "steering".
![Kozminsky Jewellery on Bourke St.](/content/dam/images/g/u/1/o/t/m/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1485773354738.jpg)
"Bricks and mortar of this size, they take a lot of time to turn," Ms Albrecht said. "You need to be more able to move quickly with the needs of people now. It's just been a big behemoth to move around quickly. It was a great idea for a decade ago or 15 years ago but it's big for now and we provide a highly personalised service. There's not many stores like that left."
The sale through Leonard Joel has a family aspect to it; the auction house is owned by John Albrecht, brother of Kirsten and as such, a former part-owner of Kozminsky.
Ms Albrecht will keep the brand's name and is considering re-inventing it in a different way after an extended break, during which she will travel overseas and look at offerings elsewhere.
"The name has as much value, if not more than the stock," she said.
The store has been patronised over the decades by everyone from High Court judges to prime ministers Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating to celebrities such as Gregory Peck, Elton John, Alice Cooper and Tom Selleck.
![MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 30: Kozminsky Jewellery owner Kristen Albrecht poses for a portrait on January 30, 2017 ...](/content/dam/images/g/u/1/o/t/u/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1485773398991.jpg)
"Cher came into the store and was the first person to buy one black pearl earing and one white pearl earing, and that then started a trend," Ms Albrecht said. "We've even had Kevin Rudd who told a staff member she was looking at the future prime minister. Gregory Peck bought a pearl necklace for his wife Veronique, who later returned to try and sell it."
Ms Albrecht said if the brand was ever to be revived, it would be smaller, leaner and have a strong online presence.
"You do what I do for love," she said.
Leonard Joel national head of jewellery John D'Agata said the only single-owner jewellery sale of similar scale was that of silent movie actress Claire McKinnon in 1981. But while that sale had a large number of pieces, this one would likely gross a lot more dollar-wise and had been priced conservatively to sell.
![All remaining stock will be sold on March 4 through auction house Leonard Joel in what is expected to be the most ...](/content/dam/images/g/u/1/o/t/y/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1485773444122.jpg)
"I feel very nostalgic, as does Kirsten's brother John, about this auction as it reinforces Australia's oldest jewellery retail tradition, but we're personally delighted that Kirsten will hold on to the brand and reinvent it when and how she sees fit," Mr D'Agata said.
Auction standouts include a pair of diamond and amethyst chandelier earrings with their original box and a Victorian diamond riviere fringe necklace, the latter expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.
Kozminsky was established in 1851 by Polish immigrants Simon and Isidore Kozminsky, and has changed hands only three times over the ensuing 165 years. Kurt Albrecht bought the business close to 50 years ago and his daughter grew up with it. What began as a business selling primarily antique jewellery along with furniture, objets d'art and silver has morphed into one that sells contemporary as well as antique jewellery, and has dropped the sale of antique furniture.
The grandchildren of clients Ms Albrecht dealt with as a teenager became her customers.
"One of the biggest changes in the market to me in my lifetime is people having no interest in having silver for the table," she said. "In my lifetime they've gone from having silver cutlery, candlesticks, napkin rings to nothing. Silver has been a huge change."
Ms Albrecht said clients were often dismayed when they asked her to sell their silver for them and she told them she couldn't.
"I ask if they have children and why aren't they being given it, the response is always 'that's why I'm selling it'. So of course I say and that's why we're not."
Ms Albrecht said the 1980s were the glory days for businesses such as hers. "People were coming in flush with cash, but then the recession hit and people were coming back and trying to sell pieces so they could pay for their children's school fees," she said.
The market has changed she thinks not for the better.
"As a society our approach to adornment is becoming incredibly formulaic and lacking individuality," she said. "It seems that individuality is sort of being superseded by let's all get the same thing. Life is not simple but art and beauty are the most life giving things."