The American Museum of Natural History is currently displaying the 55.08-carat, champagne-colored Kimberley Diamond.
Cut from a 490-carat crystal, which was found in the 19th century at the Kimberley Mine in South Africa, the Kimberley Diamond was originally cut as a 70-carat gem in 1921. To improve on the gem’s proportions and to increase its brilliancy, it was cut to its present emerald cut in 1958.
The Kimberley Diamond exhibit is overseen by George Harlow, curator in the Museum’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Dr. Harlow also curated The Nature of Diamonds, a past Museum exhibition that included much about the origins of diamond—the transparent form of true carbon—and about diamond-mining. www.amnh.org