The Idol's Eye Diamond

  The Idol’s Eye Diamond was discovered at the Golconda Mines in India around 1600. The diamond appeared on July 14, 1865 at a sale at Christie’s in London. The Idol’s Eye Diamond has a slight tint of blue and weighs seventy point twenty-one metric carats. It is a cross between a triangular brilliant and an Old Mine cut; the Idol’s Eye has nine main facets, as well as nine pavilion main facets and many scattered non-symmetrical facets. The diamond later emerged on June 24, 1909 at an auction in Paris and was purchased by a Spanish nobleman. In 1946, Harry Winston acquired the Idol’s Eye; he then sold the diamond to Mrs. Mary Bonfils Stanton, the daughter of the Denver Post cofounder/ publisher, Frederick G. Bonfils. After Stanton’s death in March of 1962, Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc. auctioned her diamonds. The Idol’s Eye Diamond was purchased by Harry Levinson for $375,000. In 1979 Laurence Graff bought the diamond; he later sold the Idol’s Eye along with the Emperor Maximilian and the Sultan Abdul Hamid II Diamond; this is regarded as one of the greatest transactions ever known.