Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2

DESIRE LINES
HEATHER KING
Large and in charge
Los Angeles’ Natural History Museum
is mounting a super-duper
show in Exposition Park through
the spring.
The museum recently unveiled “100
Carats: Icons of the Gem World,”
an exhibition of some of the highest
quality rare gems on earth, including
the world-famous Jonker I diamond,
which has not been viewed publicly
for decades.
The centerpiece of
the exhibit, the Jonker
I Diamond. | AARON
CELESTIAN/NATURAL
HISTORY MUSEUM OF
LA COUNTY
“Right this way!” you can almost hear
the carnival barker’s cry.
Says Lori Bettison-Varga, the museum’s
president and director: “Gems of
such magnificent size and quality have
never been displayed before in this
quantity in one exhibition.”
The 125-carat Jonker I, one of the
largest cut diamonds in the world, is
the centerpiece of the exhibition.
The Jonker, found by a South African
farmer in 1934, was at the time the
fourth-largest uncut gem ever discovered.
At 726 carats — a little over
five ounces — it was later cut into 13
smaller stones, the Jonker I being the
largest.
Far more interesting than the stone’s
size, to my mind, is the intrigue surrounding
it.
From Wikipedia: “In 1949, King Farouk
of Egypt purchased the Jonker I,
but after he was deposed and exiled in
1952, the gem was lost. After a number
of years, the gem reappeared in the
ownership of Queen Ratna of Nepal.
The last known location of the Jonker
I was in Hong Kong in 1977 when it
was sold to an anonymous buyer for
$2,259,000.”
Lost? Wouldn’t you give anything to
know how the gem made its way from
Egypt to Nepal? Whoever the anonymous
buyer was in 1977, today the
Jonker I is owned — and on loan to
the NHS — by Ibrahim Al-Rashid. No
further details given.
In its 80 years of existence, the
diamond has never been on display in
a museum. Which just goes to show,
really, what can you do with this exquisite
jewel except put it in a safe?
But the exhibition includes way more
than the Jonker I. Other treasures
include a 241-carat emerald known
as “The Crown of Colombia,” a deep
aquamarine beryl called “The Northern
Light,” an exquisite blood-red
rubellite tourmaline, “The Princess
Pink Sapphire,” and “The Ukrainian
Flag Topaz.” Every stone in the exhibit
is at least 100 carats (a carat weighs
.007 of an ounce), which in the gem
world is gigantic.
“Every gem is a minor geologic miracle,”
the museum notes.
Think mountains, volcanoes, tectonic
30 • ANGELUS • January 26, 2024