National Museum of Natural History
The Splendor of Diamonds
June 27, 2003 – September 30, 2003
On view together for the first time are 7 of the world's rarest diamonds representing a range of sizes and a rainbow of colors—red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, blue-green, and colorless. All grew from carbon atoms deep within the earth and endured an explosive journey to the Earth's surface. The colorless diamonds are composed purely of carbon atoms. The rare colors of the others resulted from impurities that replaced some of the carbon atoms during growth.
These diamonds were found since 1980 and are on loan from their owners:
- The De Beers Millennium Star (203.04 carats), 6th-largest colorless diamond is on view through Sept. 1.
- An unnamed (103 carats) colorless, cushion-cut diamond is on view Sept. 2-30.
- The Allnatt (101.29 carats), a yellow diamond.
- The Steinmetz Pink (59.60 carats), largest pink diamond.
- The Heart of Eternity (27.64 carats), a blue diamond.
- The Pumpkin Diamond (5.54 carats), one of the largest orange diamonds.
- The Ocean Dream (5.51 carats), the largest blue-green diamond.
- The Moussaieff Red (5.11 carats), the largest red diamond.
