A link with the heady days of the Gold Rush will be broken when Kozminsky jewellers, a Melbourne institution, closes its doors after 166 years.
Kirsten Albrecht, whose family has owned the business for 48 years, says she is touched by the "outpouring of emotion" from the public at news that the shop, whose historic status in this city is on par with Pellegrini's, Henry Buck's and Myer, will shut on February 10.
![Dazzling past: Kirsten Albrecht, owner of Kozminsky jewellers, in her Bourke Street store, which closes on February 10.](/web/20170131085806im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/1/o/t/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2i8y.png/1485849990992.jpg)
Ms Albrecht, who first worked at Kozminsky in 1968 aged 12, says the store has seen armed robberies, conmen laundering money and even a shooting.
But last month's rampage that left six people dead and dozens injured near her Bourke Street store was the worst incident, she said.
![A Melbourne landmark: An early incarnation of of the store in Bourke Street, circa 1890-1900.](/web/20170131085806im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/j/o/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu2i8y.png/1485849990992.jpg)
The sudden death of her husband, John Lonergan, six months ago had already caused her to start planning the closure and a well-earned break.
But the Bourke Street tragedy – staff saw bodies in the street – newly underlined the dark side of city life. She realised, "sometimes it would be nice to be in a treehouse in Phuket looking down on the ocean".
There have been only four owners since Polish immigrant Simon Kozminsky opened at the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth streets in 1851, turning newly mined gold into rings.
When Ms Albrecht's father, Kurt Albrecht, bought the business in 1969, it sold rugs, paintings, furniture and objets d'art as well as jewellery.
![The exterior of 421 Bourke Street, home of Kozminsky jewellers for more than 40 years.](/web/20170131085806im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/j/m/4/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gu2i8y.png/1485849990992.jpg)
Today the business is exclusively jewellery, specialising in diamonds.
Ms Albrecht's brother John, owner of Leonard Joel auction house, will oversee the auction, on March 4, of 550 Kozminsky pieces – estimated value more than $1 million – ranging from $500 silver brooches to a $50,000 diamond necklace.
Ms Albrecht will retain the Kozminsky name, and will possibly reboot it in future in a downsized way. She will spend more time with her four children and their families.
She could, if she wished, write several books about the store, including encounters with celebrities such as Cher and Mark Knopfler, artist Brett Whiteley and former prime minister Paul Keating.
Then there was the day robbers shot her father in the back. And the day a dishevelled woman bought a huge diamond solitaire – stripping down to her underwear, where she'd stashed $20,000 cash.
But Ms Albrecht's favourite story is how an elderly woman asked for her ruby wedding ring to be valued, after her husband's death. It had been bought at Kozminsky 50 years before. Ms Albrecht was horrified to realise it was fake and offered the woman a genuine ruby ring.
"She said, 'No, I'll never replace it because it was my husband's and I want to wear it forever.'
"That was probably the most non-materialistic person I've ever dealt with, who actually realised what matters in life."