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Report: Famous blue diamonds not from same stone

January 29, 2010

Washington--Decades of speculation were put to rest Thursday when scientists announced that the Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff diamonds, two storied, blue-colored stones, were not cut from the same piece of rough, according to a report in The Washington Post.
 
Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem Collection at the Smithsonian Institute, made the announcement at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History as the Wittelsbach-Graff went on public display for the first time in more than 50 years.
 
Diamantaire Laurence Graff purchased the Wittelsbach diamond, which traces its history--including ownership by various royal families--back to 1664, for a record $24.3 million at a Christie's auction in December 2008. After attaching his name to the stone, he turned it over temporarily to the museum, allowing scientists to evaluate the 31.06-carat Wittelsbach-Graff and the 45.52-carat Hope side by side.

"There is an uncanny resemblance but they are different," Post said of the two diamonds, according to the newspaper report. "They are not part of the same crystal or rough. Perhaps they are distant cousins, but not brothers and sisters."

Post told the newspaper that while it is likely the diamonds had a very similar geologic history, they did not come from the same original stone.

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond will be on display in the National Museum of Natural History's Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals--the same hall where the Hope Diamond permanently resides--through Aug. 1.
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