The Blue Moon diamond, a rare flawless 12-carat diamond, becomes the newest attraction at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.
The rare gem was purchased by Cora International for $25.6 million in February. According to Bloomberg, its beauty may provide clues about the forces deep beneath the surface Earth when it was formed at least a billion of years ago. Peter Diamonds discovered the blue diamond in Culinan, South Africa. Six months after cutting and polishing, it is now being displayed at the museum.
Colored diamonds are the most expensive stones in the world. The blue color of the diamond is considered unique. Geologists traced its color from traces boron lodged within it.
"Blue diamonds are rare because boron doesn't happen very often down there, so it's going to tell us more about the why, how, and maybe the when as well," Eloise Gaillou, a mineral sciences expert at the Natural History Museum, told Reuters.
Forbes reported that the diamond was tested and examined by the Smithsonian Institution using ultraviolet light. The gem produced a 20-second glow, longer than other blue diamonds, indicating that it is real and saturated. Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection, supervised the test. The Gemological Institute of America gave the Blue Moon diamond a "fancy vivid" color rating and "internally flawless" clarity rating.
The Blue Moon diamond will be on display until January 2015 before the owner sells it for "tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars." The company confirmed that it has received calls from interested buyers.
"You get many different vivid blues, but this blue is an absolutely phenomenal color, the saturation is off the charts," said Suzette Gomes, chief executive officer of Cora International, to Reuters. "I have never, in all my time in diamonds, seen a color like this."
