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| Passion Investments: Gems & Jewelry |
A Dazzling Palette
Catherine Curan
01/01/2008
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"It’s like opening up a Cracker Jack box; you never know
what’s inside," Bronstein says.
In the last decade, colored diamonds have developed a serious following among collectors. |
Is That Real?
Just as there are
many techniques for making a fake diamond, a counterfeiter can take a low-grade
brown diamond and give it a more desirable hue through various heating and
pressurizing processes. The best way to be certain that you have a true colored
diamond is to buy from established auction houses and luxury jewelers, such as
Graff, Tiffany and Harry Winston, Moussaieff and Steinmetz in London, Mouawad
in the Middle East and Calleija in Australia, among others. Many reputable
dealers sell their fancy diamonds with a certificate of authenticity from the
Gemological Institute of America or other well-regarded labs that subject the
diamonds to a battery of nondestructive tests with infrared light,
visible-spectrum light and ultraviolet light.
Blood on the Stone
The 2006 Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond
shined a klieg light on the brutality that can lie behind the diamond industry’s
glamorous image.
"Blood diamonds are relevant to everything about diamonds,
including fancy colored stones, which can and have come from places where there
have been problems," says collector and consultant Alan Bronstein. Buyers
seeking assurances that the beauty they crave has not been used to finance
conflicts should ask where the stone was mined and whether it was traded under
the Kimberley Process guidelines. This UN-backed initiative of government, civil
and industry groups has been cleaning up the trade in rough diamonds since 2002.
There are now 46 participants, including Liberia, which joined last May after
a positive assessment from Kimberley experts. According to the Kimberley Process
website, the only place where rebel forces still control diamond production is
Côte d’Ivoire, which represents less than 0.2 percent of the industry.
Catherine Curan is a senior correspondent for Worth.
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