The Guinness-certified world’s largest sapphire, weighing in at 31,308 cts., making it the size of a dinner plate, is up for sale, says owner Ophir Collection.
A release from the company did not say where and when it would be sold, but spokesperson Kris Astor suggests the sapphire, and others in the accompanying 40-piece collection, may be sold via private auction. She declined to provide an estimate, saying it is difficult to value some of the stones.
The collection also includes what it calls the world’s largest cut tanzanite (508.06 cts.) and the world’s largest cut brown sapphire (5,905 cts.), both of which boast Guinness World Records citations. All stones in the collection, bar one, have reports from the Gemological Institute of America, it says.
World’s largest cut tanzanite
World’s largest cut brown sapphire
Astor says the stones in the collection were “amassed over a period of nearly two decades by a single individual collector. The collector traveled the world extensively, and many pieces were acquired in their countries of origin.”
The Ophir Collection LLC is described as a “Delaware limited liability company…formed specifically for the purpose of selling the collection, while allowing the individual collector to retain their privacy.” It is named for the biblical city where King Solomon is said to have transported his treasures.
The collection includes several gems for which there are only a handful of specimens, like a 22 ct. musgravite and a 15.43 ct. hibonite, both considered among of the rarest gemstones on Earth. It also contains two pieces of neptunite, which are the only two the GIA has ever examined.
Hibonite
Musgravite
Neptunite
The entire collection can be viewed here.
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