The Kazanjian Red Diamond

The Kazanjian Red Diamond

The Kazanjian Red Diamond

One of the rarest gemstones in the world, a red diamond, is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History.

The Kazanjian Red Diamond, a square-cut gem of a red color so deep that it has at various times in history been mistaken for a ruby, is like most red diamonds comparatively small, weighing 5.05 carats and measuring10 millimeters on each side and 6 millimeters deep.

While the vast majority of the world' red and pink diamonds come from Australia, the Kazanjian red diamond was mined in South Africa in the 1920s. In its rough form, the diamond weighed 35 carats. Ian Balfour, in his book Famous Diamonds, says that a diamond dealer paid 280 for it and entrusted the Goudiv Brothers firm in Amsterdam with cutting and polishing the stone. Later, the diamond was sent to the Tiffany & Co jewelry house in New York (twice, according to reports but with no explanation given).

Somehow, the red diamond crossed back over to the Netherlands and was seized by the Nazis in 1944. The Nazis sent it to Germany, and when the famous jeweler Louis Asscher discovered it in Bavaria, he sold it to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer.

The diamond's dizzying history didn't end there. Oppenheimer resold the red stone to the Royal Asscher Diamond Company, and in 1970 the diamond seemed to fall off the radar.

It resurfaced after nearly four decades when, in 2007, an Asian collector contacted Kazanjian Diamonds Chairman Michael Kazanjian's son Douglas about the stone. Douglas Kazanjian set to work researching the red diamond and concluded that this was the red diamond that had been passed through so many hands before being missed.

The Kazanjians bought the diamond, which was renamed after the family (it appears as the Kazanjian Red in the fourth edition of Balfour's Famous Diamonds) and lent to the Natural History Museum of Los Angles to be displayed. The stone certified by both the Gubelin Gemland and the Gemological Institute of America - is expected to be shown in New York for six months.

The Jewelers' Circular Keystone jewelry trade publication interviewed Michael Kazanjian about the company's plans for the rare red diamond. Kazanjian said that while the company intended to sell the diamond, they intended to "enjoy it" for a while longer before handing it over to a private collector. When the diamond is finally sold, Kazanjian noted, the profits would go to the Kazanjian Foundation a charity established by the family that benefits young people.

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