‘Billion-year-old’ black diamond, blasted from outer space, could fetch $6.8M

An out-of-this-world — actually — black diamond will go to the very best bidder at Sotheby’s subsequent month.

The record-breaking, 555.55-carat gemstone, dubbed “The Enigma,” was ranked among the many largest and hardest diamonds on the planet, and it’s thought to have dropped right here hundreds of thousands of years in the past from outer house, in response to the enduring public sale home’s knowledgeable gemologists.

Black diamonds like this one, additionally known as carbonados, are shaped out of a meteoric impression to Earth, solid out of the blast or deriving from the asteroid itself, Sotheby’s shared in a press release.

The 1-billion-year-old diamond is predicted to fetch at the least $6.8 million when it hits the net block, the place it will likely be up for bidding from Feb. 3 to Feb. 9. Sotheby’s will settle for cryptocurrency as cost — in addition to chilly laborious money.

The Home of Gübelin in Switzerland and the Gemological Institute of America each have declared it the biggest recognized of its sort, and it was first listed by Guinness World Information in 2006.

In the meantime, this 2022 publicity push marks the primary time the diamond has ever been proven publicly, Sotheby’s mentioned. Following an unveiling on the Dubai Diamond Alternate this week, the Enigma will journey to Los Angeles from Jan. 24 to Jan. 26 earlier than touchdown on the London public sale home in February.

The 555.55-carat jewel was also cut with 55 facets, though who discovered and shaped the gem remains unknown. The diamond had previously belonged to an anonymous owner.
The 555.55-carat jewel was additionally lower with 55 aspects, although who found and formed the gem stays unknown. The diamond beforehand had an nameless proprietor.
Instagram/Sotheby's

In step with its numeric theme, the 555.55-carat jewel was additionally lower with 55 aspects, a technical feat for one of many hardest diamonds in existence, in response to Sotheby’s.

“The form of the diamond is predicated on the Center Jap palm image of the Khamsa, which stands for energy and … safety,” Sophie Stevens, a jewellery specialist at Sotheby’s Dubai, instructed the Related Press. Khamsa in Arabic means 5, “so there’s a pleasant theme of the quantity 5 operating all through the diamond.”

The Enigma was lauded as the largest of its kind by Guinness World Records, the House of Gübelin in Switzerland and the Gemological Institute of America.
The Enigma was lauded as the biggest of its sort by Guinness World Information, the Home of Gübelin in Switzerland and the Gemological Institute of America.
Instagram/Sotheby's

“ ‘The Enigma’ is a marvel of rarity and dimension, and its brilliance and excessive polish are a testomony to the fragile and extremely expert enterprise of diamond slicing,” mentioned Nikita Binani, jewellery specialist and head of sale at Sotheby’s London.

The diamond had beforehand belonged to an nameless proprietor, mentioned Binani, although it’s not precisely clear the place or the way it got here into existence.

“Its sale represents a once-in-a-lifetime alternative to amass one of many rarest, billion-year-old cosmic wonders recognized to humankind,” she mentioned. 

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