National Museum of Natural History
Red Diamond
February 2, 1988 – January 30, 1995
On view is a 5.03-carat red diamond—the first of its kind ever permanently displayed in a public museum. The unmounted diamond, round cut and dark orange-red in color, is a bequest to the Smithsonian from the estate of S. Sydney DeYoung, an internationally known Boston diamond dealer, who died in October 1986.
Of the many fancy colored diamonds found in nature, the rarest is red. Only five red diamonds have ever been documented. Being so rare, these diamonds are incredibly expensive. A fine intense purplish-red 0.95-carat diamond was sold in New York in April 1987 for nearly $1 million, making it the most expensive price per carat ever paid for a diamond at auction.
