Sorry for the long lapse between posts but real life, in the fo
rm of trying to sell off an estate, has kept me very occupied. The whole process has only reinforced my belief that buying quality is a wise investment while anything less is just "stuff" which in the end has no value at all.
As any luxury diva should, I do have my pet diamonds. Among them is the fabled Wittelsbach Blue, the impeccably provenanced stone that resurfaced from obscurity at a Christies auction and sold for the highest price per carat ever achieved at auction.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that the Wittelsbach Blue exists in a price galaxy far, far away from mine own.
Nevertheless, I've taken a fond interest in it and when it was bought by billionaire diamond dealer Lawrence Graff, I assumed he was going to ultimately flog it off to some filthy rich guy in a burnoose sitting on a lake of sand-covered crude. Instead, the poor Wittelsbach has been vandalized by a nouveau riche jeweler who thought he had the right to mess with it.
The Wittelsbach Blue, as I related in my very first post (check it out for the whole history) was not only rare because of it's gray/blue color and it's great 35.52 carat size, but because of it's royal lineage. It was the most historically important diamond in the world. Still, Mr. Graff decided to "refurbish" it by cutting away the chips and "bruises" the stone had acquired over the centuries since it's discovery in the 1600's. In the process, he reduced the diamond to a tad over 31 carats, claiming to have also enhanced the clarity and brilliance. He then added his own name to those of Spain and Bavaria's royal families and worked out a deal to display the recut, renamed stone at the Smithsonian as a companion to that other great blue, the spooky Hope diamond.
According to a disgruntled museum expert on the gem's history, Mr Graff's shameful diamond is no longer the Wittelsbach...it is nothing but a big grayish blue stone...the Wittelsbach is gone forever. So what, my fellow luxury lovers, do you think? Should the great blue diamond have been left in it's historical form, chipped edges and all, or modernized? Post your comments and let's discuss it...
Photo shows the Wittelsbach Blue in it's Bavarian royal period.
6 comments:
He can cut it up if he wants to, it's his diamond.
Well, yes it's his diamond but it's also a part of history. I don't know if I agree with the museum director who called it "nothing" but it has lost it's past.
It just shows that boys always have to lift their leg and mark their territory.....
That must be it...otherwise why change the diamond? It was good enough for royalty but not good enough for Graff?
Mr. Graff's next projects include excising Cindy Crawford's mole and straightening the leaning tower of Pisa. he just doesn't get it.
Did anyone notice that instead of donating the diamond to the Smithsonian as Harry Winston did with the Hope diamond, he only loaned it? I guess the guy in the burnoose will get to buy it after all.
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