In 1938, Dalí designed a surrealist pavilion for the 1939 New York World's Fair. Tasked with promoting it, photographer Horst P. Horst took a series of photographs, including one of a model wearing only Schiaparelli's "Constellation" necklace. Dalí then painted over the photograph, transforming the model into a surrealist mermaid.

The surrealist pavilion, called Dream of Venus, recalled in various aspects the work of Schiaparelli. In 1935, for the legendary Ball of Famous Paintings, she had indeed dressed the Viscountess Benoist d'Azy in such a way as to give the impression that she was naked, like the Venus in Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus.