Venice’s Jeweler to the Stars Is Also Its Best-Kept Secret

Early one morning in the summer of 1973, Attilio Codognato got an urgent phone call from the Gritti Palace hotel. On the line was Louis Alexandre Raimon, the famous hairdresser better known as Alexandre de Paris. He had told his clients about one of Codognato’s bracelets—a golden gem-eyed snake with a crown of diamonds—and they wanted to see it immediately.

The clients? Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. But Burton didn’t want to leave the hotel, preferring to stay in and have a drink. Could Codognato come over as soon as possible? “So I went personally to see Liz Taylor, with those fantastic eyes,” recalls Codognato, speaking with a thick Italian accent. “Burton was drunk, totally. But they bought the piece.”