Guests flocked to the lobby of the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on the evening of Jan 28, many wearing dazzling jewelry. One woman wore a gemstone-studded dress and a tiara.

Most were drawn to an exhibit case displaying Wallace Chan's flower-shaped brooch Vividity - a 64-carat deep pink Elbaite tourmaline nested in a burst of rubies, colored diamonds and green tourmalines.

Wallace Chan was the first and only Asian designer ever invited to show at the Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris, the world's premiere haute jewelry exhibition. The Great Wall he presented there in 2012 - a necklace of antique Chinese imperial jadeite and diamond-encrusted maple leaves - sold for $60 million.

Chan's Heritage in Bloom, made with 11,551 diamonds and finished in 2015, was called the world's most expensive diamond necklace, according to The New York Times, and had a price tag of $200 million.

He is also the first Chinese jewelry artist ever invited to exhibit at TEFAF in Maastricht, Europe's most prestigious art fair, where he will present his jewelry creations, glass carvings and large-scale titanium sculptures from March 11-20.