According to the New York Post reported on the 17th, Sotheby's Auction House, headquartered in New York, will auction a rare black diamond next month.
Image source: Foreign media
According to gem experts at the auction house, the 555.55-carat diamond, known as the "Stone of Mystery," is one of the largest and hardest diamonds in the world, and experts believe it was "dropped from outer space to Earth hundreds of millions of years ago."
Sotheby's said in a statement that black diamonds like these were formed by meteorites hitting Earth, by explosions or by the asteroid itself.
The 1 billion-year-old diamond will be auctioned online from Feb. 3 to Feb. 9 and is expected to fetch at least $6.8 million. Sotheby's will accept cryptocurrencies and cash as a means of payment.
Both Swiss jeweler Gübelin and the American Gemological Society declared it the largest known diamond and was first included in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2006.
Meanwhile, Sotheby's auction house said the 2022 campaign marked the diamond's first public appearance. Following the unveiling of the Dubai Diamond Exchange this week, the "Stone of Mystery" will travel to Los Angeles from January 24 to January 26, before arriving at Sotheby's London auction house in February.
According to Sotheby's, the 555.55 ct diamond was also cut with 55 small faces, a technical feat.
Nikita Binani, jewellery expert and auction director at Sotheby's London auction house, said: "The 'Stone of Mystery' is a rare treasure, its size is amazing, its luster and high polishing show the superb technique of diamond cutting."
Bianani said the diamond previously belonged to an anonymous owner, but it's unclear where or how it appeared. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for bidders to acquire one of the rarest 1 billion-year-old wonders of the universe known to mankind," she said.
(Editor: ZLQ)