Appraise jewelry with TV expert Julian Schmitz-Avila

Julian Schmitz-Avila is known to a wide audience from television, especially from the ZDF program Bares für Rares. What many people don't know is that he also has a special fondness for gemstones and is represented at the Munich Show for the fifth time this year with his own appraisal booth. The Munich Show team spoke with him:

Mr. Schmitz-Avila, you come from the art and antiques trade, but you are also increasingly involved with gemstones and jewelry. How does that fit together?

My roots are clearly in the classical art trade—that is my foundation and will remain so. But I have been fascinated by minerals and gemstones since my childhood. I come from Bad Breisig, near Lake Laach, which is a very exciting area from a geological point of view. My grandfather gave me a small box of rock crystals, amethysts, smoky quartz, agates, and fluorites. That was the beginning.

This childhood fascination has now become a second career!

That's right. During the coronavirus pandemic, I completed a course to become a diamond appraiser at the German Gemmological Society in Idar-Oberstein. However, since my real passion is colored gemstones, I am currently supplementing this with training to become a gemologist.

You have been an integral part of the Munich Show in Munich for several years now. How did that come about?

My business partner, jeweler Herrmann from Koblenz, invited me to be a co-exhibitor at the trade fair. This quickly led to a very good relationship with Christoph Keilmann's team. For the past three years, I have also been one of the judges for the Young Designers Corner Award competition for young talent, and I always enjoy the four days of the trade fair in Munich.

What were your highlights?

The size and diversity of the fair never cease to amaze me. Christoph Keilmann gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in a truly incredible world. His enthusiasm for minerals and fossils is incredibly contagious, and the connections he creates here are unique: science and adventure, tradition and the future, dinosaurs and fine jewelry—the Munich Show is a platform where these apparent opposites find common ground. My highlights are therefore the inspiration, the contacts, and the friendships that always arise here.

What can visitors expect at your booth this year?

Once again, we are offering independent and trustworthy appraisals of jewelry, gemstones, and watches—on all days of the fair, from Thursday to Sunday. Visitors can bring their pieces with them, and we will appraise them professionally and, if interested, offer to purchase them.

Visit Julian Schmitz-Avila at Booth B6.110a.