The Claim
No one knows where the worlds most expensive diamond is
The Florentine diamond is probably the most famous diamond in the world due to its size and history. The diamond has 9 main faces made up of 126 smaller flat faces at various angles, and weighs in at a very expensive 137.27 carats.
The stone is thought to have originated from India during the early 1600’s, and was originally bought by Charles the Bold, the last duke of Normandy who had master diamond cutter Lodewyk van Bercken shape it into the diamond pictured above.
The diamonds origin is contested however, with various stories of how it appeared and who had it first. The first documented history of the stone comes from a French jeweller who saw it amongst the possessions of the Grand duke of Tuscany in 1657. It was passed around various owners over the years and was even in the possession of Pope Julius II at one point.
The last official location of the diamond was when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria obtained the diamond through marriage and placed it in the Habsburg crown jewels, held at the imperial palace in Vienna.
After the Austrian empire fell at the end of the first world war, the diamond was taken to Switzerland by Charles I of Austria who hid there in exile. The story goes that someone close to the Austrian imperial family stole the diamond shortly after Charles I reached his hideout in Switzerland and made a run for it.
After this the diamond just vanished, with many believing it has since been cut into various smaller diamonds and sold. This is just a rumour however as this kind of diamond isn’t something that you just pop into your local diamond store and casually ask to be cut.
There wouldn’t be a master diamond cutter in the world that hasn’t heard of this gem, and the value of having it whole would out-weigh anything they could get for it in smaller pieces. But perhaps they couldn’t sell it whole and thought that cutting it up would be the best bet, or perhaps its sitting in the private collection of a wealthy collector.
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