Chaumet’s sword : The ultimate Power Flex
Recently in Paris, Bernard Arnault was formally received into the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, one of France’s learned academies. For non-French readers: think of it as part of an old institutional ecosystem, where membership is largely symbolic, rooted in tradition, and staged with unapologetic ceremony. Not really politics. Definitly a ritual.
And Rituals always mean powerful objects.
The main caractere
A sword.
Not a weapon in any practical sense, but a ceremonial attribute that has been part of academic installations in France since the early nineteenth century ( meaning since Napoleon ). Each sword is made specifically for its recipient, designed to reflect personal references, intellectual life, affiliations, or simply taste. In other words: it is a unique and tailor made object that exists to say, I belong here.
For Arnault’s installation, the sword was designed by Frank Gehry , the Louis Vuitton Fondation's architect and a name that already signals this will not be shy . It was then executed by Chaumet. Chaumet is not only a historic Parisian jeweler founded in 1780, long associated with ceremony and power. It is also part of the LVMH group, chaired (and owned) by Arnault himself.
Commissioning your ceremonial sword from a house you own is, quite simply, the ultimate power flex.
Business , influence and a hint of politics wrapped in a very symbolic self-adornment.
Interestingly, this year’s sword marks a clear stylistic shift. Last year, the ceremonial blade was crafted by Boucheron . It was understated, almost monastic in spirit. This year, Chaumet’s interpretation chooses a very different register: one where symbolism is not whispered, but fully staged.
The choice makes sense on a historical level. Chaumet’s universe has always lived close to the grammar of authority: tiaras, insignia, official gifts, objects designed not only to be beautiful, but to signify. High jewelry is already a form of soft power. A ceremonial sword is another silhouette of power.
The true Meaning
What makes this sword truly interesting is not only who crafted it and why, but what was woven into it.
The blade bears engraved symbols chosen by Bernard Arnault himself. Among them: the initials of his five children, discreetly integrated into the design. A private gesture hidden inside a public ritual: legacy quite literally inscribed in metal.
The sword also features a quotation attributed to Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Set beside a golden “X”, referencing Arnault’s education at École Polytechnique, one of France’s most elite institutions. The combinaison of both incarnates all the ambition and contradictions of the business man.
Together, these symbols capture many contradictions : imagination versus discipline, intuition versus structure. Power rarely chooses sides. It accumulates them and this is perhaps the clearest portrait of the man behind the myth.
A ceremonial sword frames a story. It materializes legitimacy, legacy, and our irresistible human urge to give power a physical form.
And yes, once the ceremony is over, the sword goes home with its owner.
At The Right Jewel, we can’t help but imagine it above a living room fireplace. Not the same living room as Bernard Arnaults , perhaps, but the desire is very much the same.
