The world’s largest known vivid yellow pear-shape diamond is now on display at London’s Natural History Museum. Known as the Sun-Drop, the 110-ct. diamond, mined in Africa, has been lent to the museum by Cora International—the diamond company that crafted the original rough diamond.
The famous gem was placed on display today in the museum’s “Vault,” a gallery for its “rarest, unique and most valuable treasures.” It’s slated to be in the museum for up to 6 months.
The Sun-Drop is yellow because there is a very small amount of nitrogen in its carbon structure, said Alan Hart, head of Collections in the Museum’s Mineralogy Department.
“Diamonds with a strong saturated color represent only a tiny percentage of all natural diamonds, which makes them particularly interesting from a scientific perspective,” Hart said. “In addition, extremely large diamonds (over 100 carats) with exceptional colors are historically significant as so few exist, so we are delighted to be able to show the Cora Sun-Drop to our visitors.”
Model and actress Jerry Hall took part in a photo shoot with the diamond on opening day, which can be seen in the video below.
A shout out to Toronto jewelry designer, Reena Ahluwalia, for turning me on to this story.