Italian Grandeur and Sacred Heritage: The BVLGARI AETERNA Gala at Bayon Temple
- Mar 17
- 3 min read
The Bayon Temple at the centre of Angkor Thom is one of the more considered venue choices in recent luxury event history. Built under Buddhist King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century, its 54 towers are carved with stone faces attributed to the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and the structure unified the religions of the Khmer Empire under a single architectural vision. When BVLGARI sought a location for the regional unveiling of its AETERNA collection, Visionnaire acknowledged the Bayon Temple as a site whose cultural weight was commensurate with the occasion.
The BVLGARI AETERNA gala dinner took place on in February 2025 to mark the house’s 140th anniversary with a 156-piece collection spanning haute joaillerie, timepieces, and bags, all drawing inspiration from Rome, the Eternal City where BVLGARI was founded in 1884. Cambodia’s First Lady, Her Excellency Dr Pich Chanmony, attended as guest of honour, received by BVLGARI CEO Jean-Christophe Babin and jewellery executive creative director Lucia Silvestri.
The rest of the guest list drew from across the region: Thai actress Mai Davika, Filipino actress and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Pia Wurtzbach, Vietnamese singer-model Ho Ngoc Ha, and actors including Mile Phakphum from Thailand and Ayden Sng from Singapore attended as Friends of the House.
The venue selection was grounded in a specific parallel. Both the Khmer and Roman empires built monumental architecture with materials and techniques intended to outlast their own eras. It was a sensibility that sits naturally alongside a collection named after the Latin word for “eternal”. The Bayon, having stood for over eight centuries, made that connection tangible rather than rhetorical.
Light displays illuminated the temple’s towers as guests sat at candlelit tables dressed with orange roses and Persian buttercups. Models presented pieces from the AETERNA collection on a runway set against the temple façade, with coloured beams moving across the Bayon in sync with music. The three-course dinner comprised steamed lobster, a choice of beef fillet or barramundi, and a vanilla-marinated baba filled with mango and passion fruit.
The cultural programme was composed with the same attention to register as the collection itself. Apsara dancers performed in ceremonial costumes, their movement rooted in the carved narratives that line the walls of Angkor’s sanctuaries. Tenor Khuon Sethisak, the first Cambodian to perform Western opera, sang Con te partirò to an audience seated between two ancient civilisations’ worth of stone. The evening ended with a drone display that formed the serpent emblem and traced “Aeterna” overhead.
The entire collection was showcased the following day to a purpose-built showroom at the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf and Spa Resort. The display approach drew on the work of Italian modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi, whose spatial philosophy shaped the curatorial approach. Piranesi prints, rendered as large-format tapestries by Venetian textile house Rubelli in high-density jacquard, were suspended from the ceiling.
The collection’s headline piece, the Serpenti Aeterna, comprised seven pear-shaped diamonds totalling 140 carats in perfect colourless clarity, mounted on a platinum choker set with 698 diamond baguettes. It required 2,800 hours of production and sold within 30 minutes of its Rome debut. The carat figure was chosen to correspond with BVLGARI’s 140th anniversary year, a detail that reflected the precision with which the collection was conceived.
Cambodian authorities welcomed the event as recognition of the Angkor region’s standing as an international cultural destination. For Visionnaire, the project reinforced a consistent working principle—that venue, performance, exhibition design, and cultural context each need to be held to the same standard as the product being presented.
Visionnaire is a leading event management agency specialising in premium brand experiences for luxury marques including LVMH, Chanel, Tiffany & Co., Porsche, Volkswagen and other global icons. Guided by a commitment to excellence, we create purpose-driven design and immersive storytelling that forge meaningful, lasting connections between brands and audiences. Our work is grounded in eco-conscious and socially responsible practices, supported by ISO 20121 Certification, a Gold EcoVadis rating, and our ongoing commitment to the United Nations Global Compact.
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