About Chloe
Chloë Cassens is the representative of the Severin Wunderman Collection, the largest in the world of works by iconoclastic French artist Jean Cocteau. It makes up the entirety of the contents of the Musée Jean Cocteau-collection Severin Wunderman in Menton, France.
She is a longtime scholar of Cocteau with a unique perspective, as she is Wunderman’s granddaughter. Her past research has centered around Cocteau’s Les enfants terribles and its echoes in the later life and work of Yves Saint Laurent, as well as Cocteau’s Opium: Journal d’une désintoxication and how it illuminates the role that drug addiction and sobriety plays in the lives of creatives.
Born in Los Angeles, she was raised between LA, Switzerland and France before graduating from Barnard College in 2016 with a BA in Comparative Literature. A longtime lover of music, she started working at Sunset Strip mainstay The Roxy at the tender age of fourteen years old. She took on roles at iHeartRadio and SiriusXM while concurrently DJing for WBAR and later, DASH radio with her show “The Trainwreck Sessions”.
Cassens produced the groundbreaking podcast “The Sex Ed”, hosted by Liz Goldwyn, before becoming The Sex Ed’s Media Director between 2019-2023. During her tenure, they participated in large-scale partnerships with companies such as HBO, MatchesFashion and Gucci – the first time a luxury fashion house sponsored a podcast. She produced and wrote the “Pornhub Literacy 101” series of short films for MindGeek, emphasizing its strong cybersecurity practices.
Currently a resident of Los Angeles, she decided to return to her roots representing her grandfather and his collection as the Musée Jean Cocteau remains closed following a devastating storm in 2018. Her mission is to educate others about Jean Cocteau and popularize his work around the globe. She is the author of SACRED MONSTER, a biweekly essay project centered around Cocteau, and she is working on a book about her grandfather’s life and legacy. Chloë has spoken on the subject at institutions such as the Museum of the Holocaust in Los Angeles and FIAF in New York City.
severin wunderman
Severin Wunderman (1938-2008) was the Chairman of Corum Timepieces. A survivor of the Holocaust, his extraordinary trajectory saw him go from a child hidden from Nazis to striking gold as the Founder of Gucci Timepieces. Born in Belgium, he later became an American citizen who lived in La-colle-sur-loup, France; Laguna Beach, CA; and London, England. He dedicated his life to philanthropy, and anonymously gave his fortune away to those who needed it most. Married seven times, the love of his life was his art collection. He amassed the world’s largest collection of works by Jean Cocteau, starting from when he was nineteen years old until his death. On December 31, 2004, he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by President Jacques Chirac. A titan of the watch industry, he was known as “The Time Lord”. The Musée Jean Cocteau-collection Severin Wunderman opened in 2011, and contains over 1200 pieces donated by Wunderman to Menton, France. He is survived by four children and six grandchildren.