Sotirios Voulgaris and Bulgari: Naples Burglaries to the Latin V Logo

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Sotirios Voulgaris was born in March 1857 in Paramythia, in Ottoman-ruled Epirus, one of 11 children in an Aromanian family rooted in Kalarites, the largest silversmithing center in the Balkans. Family lore traced the line to royal Balkan figures who took refuge in Venetian Corfu in the 16th century, a claim Count Stefanos Voulgaris disputed. In 1881 the family left for Italy, where his first jewelry shop in Naples was abandoned after a series of burglaries; he started again in Rome at Via Sistina 85 in 1884 and in 1905 opened the flagship on Via Condotti, the street linking the Spanish Steps to the heart of Roman commerce.

His early silver pieces blended Byzantine and Islamic floral motifs, but by the 1920s he had moved to platinum settings and Parisian Art Deco, and in the 1930s he paired geometric diamond motifs with large colored gemstones. He married Eleni Bossio in 1888, had six children and died in 1932, leaving the business to sons Giorgio and Costantino, who in 1934 unveiled the BVLGARI name with a classical Latin V. Later generations turned to gold during wartime metal shortages, created the Serpenti bracelet watches and dressed Elizabeth Taylor and Ingrid Bergman, and LVMH acquired the company in 2011 for 4.3 billion euros.

• For an immigrant artisan, the stolen Naples stock was effectively his life savings.
• Platinum's higher melting point demanded new torches and tools but held stones securely with very little metal.
• His 1930s convertible jewels could be taken apart and worn in several ways.
• The Trombino ring, named for a small trumpet, set a central stone in a broad, tapering band.
• Grandsons Paolo and Nicola helped lead the house through Rome's postwar Hollywood on the Tiber years.