The Dresden Green Diamond, also known as the Dresden Green, is a natural green
diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
, originated in the
mines of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
The Dresden Green is a rare
Type IIa, with a clarity of VS1 and it is said to be potentially internally flawless, if slightly recut.
It is named after
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
, the capital of the German state of
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, where it has been on display for most of the last two centuries, latterly in the
New Green Vault at
Dresden Castle. After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, it was relocated to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
for a decade before being returned to Dresden. In November 2019, it was sent on loan to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
so was not involved in the
jewel theft of 25 November.
History
The Dresden Green Diamond has a historical record dating back to 1722, when a London news-sheet carried an article about it in its 25 October-27th edition.
It was acquired by
Augustus III of Poland from a Dutch merchant in 1742 at the
Leipzig Fair.
In 1768, the diamond was incorporated into an extremely valuable hat ornament, surrounded by two large and 411 medium-sized and small diamonds.
[Dirk Syndram, ''Prunkstücke des Grünen Gewölbes zu Dresden'', 5th ed. Leipzig: Seemann, 2006, , pp. 166-173 ] This is the setting that the Dresden Green still appears in today.
In 2000, American jewelry firm
Harry Winston arranged to display the Dresden Green at the New York flagship store and then at the
Smithsonian in
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
, United States, where it was displayed in the Harry Winston pavilion next to the largest blue diamond in the world, the
Hope Diamond
The Hope Diamond is a diamond originally extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in Guntur, India. It is blue in color due to trace amounts of boron. Its exceptional size has revealed new information about the formation of diamonds. ...
.
In 2019, the Dresden Green Diamond narrowly escaped being stolen in the
Dresden Green Vault burglary, due to it being loaned to
New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
Color
The stone's unique apple green color is due to natural exposure to radioactive materials, as the
irradiation of diamonds can produce changes in color. The Dresden Green Diamond has been used to compare natural versus lab-produced green diamonds — it is hoped that it can be used to devise a test to differentiate between naturally green diamonds, which are quite rare, and lab-produced ones.
In popular culture
The plot of
Nicolas Freeling's 1966 novel ''The Dresden Green'' concerns an imaginary theft of the Dresden Green diamond and attempts to recover it.
See also
*
Golconda Diamonds
*
List of diamonds
Diamonds become famous typically for some combination of their size, color and quality. Diamonds occur naturally in many different colors, so the largest diamond of a particular color may not be large in absolute terms, but it may still be consid ...
Further reading
* Shipley, Robert M. (1938). ''Important Diamonds of the World'', pp. 7.
Gemological Institute of America
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is a nonprofit institute based in Carlsbad, California. It is dedicated to research and education in the field of gemology and the jewelry arts. Founded in 1931, GIA's mission is to protect buyers and se ...
, USA, Vol. 2, No. 11 (Fall 1938)
References
External links
{{commons category-inline
Individual diamonds
Dresden
Diamonds originating in India
Green diamonds