A natural pearl pendant that was once owned by Queen Marie Antoinette and smuggled out of France just before her arrest in 1791 fetched $36.1 million at Sotheby's Geneva last week. Aggressive bidding elevated the price to more than 18 times the pre-sale high estimate and demolished the previous record for the highest price ever […]
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you romantic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, 21-time Grammy winner Vince Gill buys a pretty diamond ring and proposes to the girl of his dreams in his 2016 release, "Like My Daddy Did." He sings, "I found a little girl […]
In the lead-up to yesterday's highly anticipated auction of the "Pink Legacy," Christie's Rahul Kadakia had gone out on a limb and said the 18.96-carat fancy vivid pink diamond was "as good as it gets." “To find a diamond of this size with this color is pretty much unreal,” said the International Head of Jewellery […]
Colombian miners are seeking to gain coveted "AO" status for their emeralds, widely considered to be the finest in the world. "AO" is shorthand for "appellation of origin," which is a designation given to products that possess unique characteristics associated with their geographic location. One of the most notable products with "AO" status is Parma […]
Sixty-seven diamonds ranging from just under 1 carat to more than 100 carats will be known forever as the legacy of Lesedi La Rona, the 1,109-carat gem-quality rough diamond that was discovered at the Lucara Karowe mine in Botswana in 2015. When billionaire diamantaire Laurence Graff purchased the rough stone for $53 million in 2017, […]
An all-diamond ring custom crafted from a single rough gem is expected to fetch up to $250,000 when Sotheby's offers it for sale December 5 at the third (RED) Auction in Miami. Proceeds from the sale will support HIV/AIDS programs in Africa. Conceived by Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, and renowned industrial designer […]
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country music artist Tracy Byrd tells the story of Tommy and Janey's life-changing trip to a jewelry store in 1997's "Don't Love Make a Diamond Shine." In the very first verse, we are […]
It took the designers and artisans at Atelier Swarovski a total of 930 hours to complete the bejeweled 2018 Dream Angels Fantasy Bra, an impressive work that will be worn by supermodel Elsa Hosk at this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. The $1 million bra and body chain are adorned with 2,100 diamonds weighing a […]
When British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter entered the intact tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, he encountered thousands of luxury objects intended to accompany the boy king into the afterworld. Among the items decorated with gold, silver and precious gemstones was a breastplate depicting the god Ra as a winged scarab carrying the sun […]
Rami Malek, who portrays Freddie Mercury in the newly released Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, pulled off the uncanny resemblance by wearing a mouth apparatus that mimicked the music legend's buck teeth. “It was hard to sing in them, hard to talk in them, hard to kiss in them,” the 37-year-old actor revealed on the Ellen […]