Born in New Orleans in 1928, Elizabeth M. Stafford (“Mimi”) epitomized the elegance and charm of a bygone era. After graduating from Tulane University’s Newcomb College, the ambitious young woman worked for the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany John J. McCloy during the rebuilding efforts that followed the Second World War. It was during her travels with the State Department that she met the European-born financier Frederick M. Stafford, whom she married in Paris in 1952. In the years to come, the couple would welcome three children. The Staffords first settled in New York City, and relocated to Paris in 1961. In Paris, Mimi Stafford focused much of her energies on civic engagement and Franco-American relations, serving as a board member of the U.S.O., the American Cathedral in Paris, and France-Amérique.
Just as Mimi Stafford’s own life extended from New Orleans to New York, Paris, Palm Beach, and beyond, her collecting also reflected a diversity of experience across time and geography. Like many, her interest in art was fueled in its early stages by the joy of intellectual discovery and a curiosity toward the relics of the past. On a visit to Italy in the 1950s, the Staffords purchased a modestly-priced Etruscan bronze ladle—eventually gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art—as a unique souvenir from the trip. The piece sparked an interest in collecting for the couple and throughout their lifetime they made acquisitions that included Modern art, African sculpture, period French furniture, nineteenth-century European art and fine jewelry.
Through personal erudition and in collaboration with curators, scholars, and artists, Mimi Stafford assembled a fine art collection that perfectly mirrored her fascination with history and beauty. Her jewelry collection also reflected this same fascination. From a beautiful Van Cleef & Arpels diamond bouquet brooch to a pair of emerald and diamond pendant earrings, by Harry Winston, Mimi’s jewelry exuded her refined elegance and taste. Among other outstanding pieces in her collection, perhaps the most eye-catching was the 16.69 carat, D color, potentially internally flawless marquise-cut diamond that Mimi proudly wore. Its elongated navette-shape and impressive size is sophisticated and bold, much like the owner was herself.
In the same way that art and jewelry so greatly enriched her own life, so was Mimi Stafford keen to share the wonders of her collection in the public sphere. Throughout her lifetime, Mimi Stafford provided significant financial support, bequests of fine art, and personal leadership to institutions including the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Art; the Frick Collection; the Morgan Library & Museum; the Metropolitan Opera; and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Even into her later years, she exuded a sense of insatiable curiosity and élan, as comfortable at a black-tie Manhattan dinner as she was traveling through the Middle East, Asia and Africa. With each new day, Mimi Stafford saw new possibilities for intellectual, spiritual, and artistic discovery—a joyous celebration of life at its fullest. In her collection of fine art and jewelry, this inspiring generosity of spirit continues to resonate.