After World War I, the pearl frenzy continued to thrive in Paris and the Gulf region. Merchants like Léonard Rosenthal, Jacques Bienenfeld and Mohamedali Zainal Alireza found themselves at the head of commercial empires, while new players were also emerging, attracted by the rampant growth of a seemingly unshakable market.
Held in Paris from April to October 1925, the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts gave fresh impetus to the “pearl mania” sweeping through Paris at the time.
While the arrival of cultured pearls from Japan was seen by some to mark “the end of the age of the Parisian pearl,” this statement needs to be qualified. For while the demand for natural pearls continued to increase, the supply was constantly declining, as pearl fishing was abandoned in the Gulf of Mannar and pearl production gradually decreased in the Gulf region. The public began denouncing the highly precarious circumstances in which pearl fishers lived and worked. The reign of the Parisian pearl was weakened by the economic crisis of 1929, only to decline even further with World War II and the deportation of Jewish merchants from Rue La Fayette.
