L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, in partnership with France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN), presents a retrospective dedicated to the collection of the great twentieth-century French writer Roger Caillois (1913-1978) from November 6, 2025 to March 29, 2026.
The exhibition includes iconic texts penned by Roger Caillois and nearly two hundred minerals from his collection, now part of the MNHN’s collections. This exceptional dialogue between science and poetry is the work of Pr. François Farges, PhD, curator of the exhibition and scientist in charge of the MNHN’s collections of gems and objets d’art.
With this exploration of his phantasmagoric universe, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts features one of the most brilliant and singular minds of the twentieth century for the very first time.
Sítio Garguelo (Paraíba, Brazil)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
Roger Caillois
An essayist, grammarian and poet, Roger Caillois devoted part of his work to better comprehending the connections between nature and art. Driven by his insatiable curiosity, scientific precision and boundless imagination, this master of the French language collected stones with passion and erudition for over twenty-five years.
And it was the minute contemplation of minerals that inspired much of his reflections and poetic genius.
The exhibition “Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois” delves into the writer’s intimate ties to the mineral world. Featuring more than two hundred specimens from his collection, many of which will be displayed for the first time, and bringing them into dialogue with his texts, the exhibition reveals the writer’s prolific mind.
Likely Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
“We are delighted to shine a light on a fascinating, little-known literary figure. Our partnership with France’s Muséum national d’histoire
naturelle, which houses Roger Caillois’s collection, illustrates our shared commitment to disseminating knowledge. We hope to surprise and amaze our visitors by inspiring them to reverie before the beauty of Roger Caillois’s minerals and the richness of his mind.
This exhibition will also be accompanied by a new editorial partnership with Éditions Gallimard.”
Élise Gonnet-Pon
Managing Director of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts France & Europe
Artigas (Uruguay)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
“A major center of geology and mineralogy, the Muséum houses exceptional collections of great scientific, aesthetic and historical value, including the renowned Roger Caillois collection. Made possible by a partnership between the Muséum and L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, this exhibition offers an immersion in the fascinating universe of a poet of stones who dedicated his life to unveiling their mysteries.
Forever true to our mission of sharing knowledge, we are delighted by this project, which bears witness to the strength of the ties
between our two institutions.”
Gilles Bloch
President of the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle
Roger Caillois was a man of culture and a poet of the twentieth century, but also a historian of religions and major social analyst of games, celebrations, dreams and fantasy. A brilliant career at UNESCO, where he contributed to cultural development from 1948, led him to Asia and the Americas. These journeys nourished his curiosity while enriching his knowledge and feeding his fascination for minerals.
Between 1952 and 1978, Roger Caillois patiently assembled a remarkable collection of stones, or “crossroads objects” or “fairy objects,” as he liked to call them, illustrating the depth of his aspirations. Today this invaluable collection, the lion’s share of which is housed at France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, in large part thanks to the support of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, counts more than one thousand specimens.
Roger Caillois’s passion for minerals resulted in writings of an exceptionally poetic nature. From 1959 onwards, he published essays inspired by his collection of “picture stones” including The Writing of Stones, his most renowned work, which was first printed in 1970. Elected to the Académie Française the following year, he continued to further his exploration of the mineral world until his sudden death in 1978.
Tule Melchor Múzquiz (Coahuila, Mexico)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
Minerals on Display
Nearly two hundred specimens of Roger Caillois’s precious collection will be on display, many for the very first time.
The exhibition explores the writer’s sources of inspiration, starting with Patagonia, which he discovered during his exile in Argentina in 1939-1945, and which aroused his interest in picture stones – a kind of rock whose shape or natural motifs evoke images or landscapes. Visitors will follow Roger Caillois on his travels to Japan and China and discover his fascination for Asian cultures as well as his reinterpretation of the “mystical hikes” of Chinese scholars such as the Song-dynasty Chinese poet Mi Fu (1051 – 1107), who encouraged mental reverie through contemplation of the petrified world. This predilection for drawing parallels between mineral forms and the human experience is reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci, whose influence is illustrated by pietra paesina (or ruin marbles), landscape marbles that resemble engravings and raise the question of a rivalry between artist and nature.
A discerning eye, Roger Caillois was close to the Surrealists in the early thirties and friends with André Breton. He viewed nature as a painter (a concept covered by the Latin phrase Natura pictrix), recognizing its ability to generate abstractions well before conceptual art and the first readymades. Roger Caillois therefore cultivated a preference for the “unintentional works of somnambulistic nature”: the enigmatic patterns of septaria appearing to him as “messageless hieroglyphs” while onyx, through its blackness, conjured imaginary nights. Dendrites permeated with vegetation and agates with multicolored bands conveyed a wealth of images.
Never shown before, the “secret sculptures” that he assembled from minerals like improbable chimeras have been reassembled for the exhibition.
Between scientific precision and the world of dreams, Roger Caillois sought forgotten alphabets and miniature cosmic landscapes in stones. The exhibition “Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois” also explores Roger Caillois’s “Twilight Images,” in which he embraced the mystical, seeing masks, ghosts, “wounds” and landscapes from worlds beyond.
This introspection culminates with Pierres anagogiques (Anagogical Stones) (French only) or a volume that was nearly complete upon the author’s death on December 21, 1978; it would likely have been his final literary work. These texts about stones and their spiritual or mystical interpretations (in the spirit of the Greek word anagoge, meaning “climb” or “ascent”) were rediscovered in 2023 by François Farges in obscure archives that are now housed at Vichy’s municipal Médiathèque. For the very first time, a portion of these forgotten texts will be displayed alongside corresponding stones from Roger Caillois’s collection.
Likely Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
“This exhibition is the result of unprecedented research, which has allowed us to foster a dialogue between Roger Caillois’s exceptional stones and texts, many of which are being displayed for the very first time. It provides unique insight into the mind of a man whose collection unleashed a poetic expression of a rare intensity, transforming the mineral into a mirror of his thoughts and deepest aspirations.”
Pr. François Farges, PhD
Curator of the exhibition, professor at France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle
and scientist in charge of the MNHN’s collections of gems and objets d’art
Arno Valley (Tuscany, Italy)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
An Immersion in Literature
Founded in 2012 with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts continues to pursue its mission of fostering dialogue between the fields of history, art, science and literature.
The exhibition’s scenography is designed to offer a captivating experience featuring projections and recorded excerpts of poetic texts to invite visitors on a contemplative exploration of Roger Caillois’s universe. Calligram workshops and guided tours, including a format adapted for young audiences, as well as talks will allow visitors to go even further in their discovery.
Scientific Curator
François Farges
Professor at France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle
and scientist in charge of the MNHN’s collections of gems and objets d’art.
Member of the Institut Universitaire de France and the Institute of Mineralogy,
Physics of Materials and Cosmochemistry (IMPMC) (affiliated with
the French National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS).
Renowned mineralogist François Farges has led major research projects on iconic historical gems like Louis XIV’s blue diamond and the great black diamonds and has helped reproduce lost treasures.
Formerly a professor at Stanford University, he also served as research director at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. Author of more than one thousand international publications, he has received numerous awards.
He is also a renowned photographer of minerals and gems, and a special issue of the prestigious FMR magazine is dedicated to his photographs. He has curated major exhibitions including “Pierres précieuses” (Gems) at France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, organized in partnership with Van Cleef & Arpels.
Publication: Pierres anagogiques
An exceptional volume by Roger Caillois
The exhibition “Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois,” conceived in partnership with France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, will be accompanied by the publication of a landmark work, Pierres anagogiques, copublished by L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts and Éditions Gallimard. Available in French, this unprecedented volume, which includes a majority of texts rediscovered by François Farges in 2023, could likely have been Roger Caillois’s last great poetic project.
Pierres anagogiques by Roger Caillois
Critical edition and photographs by François Farges
Copublished by Éditions Gallimard and L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts
320 pages / Language: French
A standard edition will be available at L’Escarboucle, the bookshop of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts and other bookshops in France (49 €).
A collector’s edition of 100 numbered copies will be available exclusively at L’Escarboucle,
the bookshop of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts (180€).
L’Escarboucle, the bookshop of L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts
Hôtel de Mercy-Argenteau
16 bis boulevard Montmartre, Paris 9e
Open from Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
“Explosion nucléaire au dessus de l’océan ” (Nuclear Explosion Over the
Ocean), agate
Brazil
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
The Mineral Collection & Unpublished Manuscripts
It all began with two incredible discoveries. First, in 1984-1988, France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle acquired by payment in kind a selection of 217 minerals from Roger Caillois’s collection, as well as two of the author’s unpublished manuscripts, including Pierres anagogiques, listed as “Roger Caillois’s last manuscript, unfinished.” Then, in 2023, at Vichy’s municipal library, the Médiathèque Valéry Larbaud, François Farges unearthed eleven thematic crates of unpublished manuscripts, typescripts, variations of known texts, articles, handwritten notes and even a table of contents written by hand by Roger Caillois, none of which had ever been catalogued.
For the first time, thanks to François Farges’s meticulous and untiring work of contextualization, Roger Caillois’s writings will appear alongside more than 150 full-page photographs of minerals from his collection in a unique work that also includes previously unprinted texts and minerals. The photographs include closeups of matter, for a consummate journey into the land of dreams.
This work represents an invaluable offprint of a more in-depth bilingual digital book, Whispers & Enchantments: The Inscribed Stones of Roger Caillois (1,083 pages, available in French/English). This digital reference on the Roger Caillois collection at France’s Muséum national d’histoire naturelle can be perused free of charge on archive.org.
Arno Valley (Tuscany, Italy)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
About L’ÉCOLE,
School of Jewelry Arts
Established in 2012 with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts aims to introduce the public to all aspects of jewelry culture through various activities: courses, workshops, talks, exhibitions, books and podcast. Activities at L’ÉCOLE cover three main areas: the history of jewelry, the world of gemstones and the savoir-faire of jewelry-making techniques.
The courses are open to everyone, with no prerequisites: complete beginners as well as enlightened amateurs, collectors and those with a curiosity for the world of jewelry. Students experiment with gestures, skills and tools, guided by their lecturers – art historians, gemologists and craftsmen.
L’ÉCOLE now has four permanent addresses: in Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai. Moreover, since its inception, L’ÉCOLE regularly travels abroad, in Europe, America, Asia and the Middle East, for talks, exhibitions or travelling course programs that can last one to three weeks. L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts therefore contributes to the promotion and visibility of jewelry culture on an international scale.
Ylämaa (South Karelia, Finland)
Paris, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, mineral and gem collection,
photograph by François Farges
The exhibition “Stones and Reveries: The Poetry and Minerals of Roger Caillois” will launch the international program of events from Paris. In Shanghai, the “Journey with Minerals” exhibition in partnership with the Mineralogy Museum at MINES Paris – PSL will be held from November 25, 2025 through March 29, 2026, while several events featuring the diamond will be held at L’ÉCOLE’s Hong Kong campus from November 18 through December 7, 2025.
About the Muséum national
d’histoire naturelle
A research center, museum and university, the Muséum has over the last four centuries remained committed to studying geological, biological and cultural diversity and the relationship between humans and nature. With more than 68 million specimens, its collections are in part exhibited at twelve locations throughout France: its museums, libraries, geological and prehistoric sites and botanical and zoological gardens. The Muséum’s collections of minerals, rocks and precious gems are the oldest in the world, and it has provided a forum for the emergence of major fields including mineralogy, crystallography and gemology since the eighteenth century.
Preserving this rich heritage is central to the Muséum’s mission, which hosts collections of figures who revolutionized the approach to these objects, including that of the writer Roger Caillois.
The Muséum and L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, founded with the
support of Van Cleef & Arpels: a long-standing collaboration
The partnership began in 2014 with the appointment of François Farges to
the Scientific Council at L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts and continued in
2016 with the reproduction of Louis XIV’s diamonds, purchased in 1669 from
the merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and then in 2020, with the creation
of a series of online talks for the “Pierres précieuses” (Gems) exhibition,
organized by Van Cleef & Arpels at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. In 2024,
the partnership between the two institutions resulted in the “Black Diamonds:
Rediscovered Treasures” exhibition at L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts on the Hong Kong campus.
It is also thanks to L’ÉCOLE’s sponsorship that the Muséum has since 2017
housed the lion’s share of Roger Caillois’s collection, which is featured in this
exhibition. Part of the Muséum’s centuries-old tradition of fostering dialogue
between sciences, arts and techniques, the collaboration also takes the form
of research projects, published works, talks, podcasts and more.
Tap here to go directly to the Museum’s website for more details about the exhibition.
