AMNH's Halls Of Gems & Minerals To Reopen With New Look This June
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The new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, which are scheduled to open to the public on June 12, 2021, at the American Museum of Natural History. The 11,000-square-foot halls will display one of the greatest collections of its kind and engage visitors in the recent science about our dynamic planet.
This incredible specimen, a 9-pound almandine, is known as the Subway Garnet. It was discovered in 1885 under 35th Street between 7th Avenue and Broadway, near Herald Square. The name is misleading because it was actually found during excavation for sewer pipes. It will be on display in the new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
At 563 carats, the Star of India is the world’s largest gem-quality blue star sapphire. Some 2 billion years old, it is also one of the most well-known objects in the world. It will be on display in the new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
This wall-sized panel of rock that glows in spectacular shades of orange and green was sourced from Sterling Hill in New Jersey. About 90 fluorescent mineral species are found at Sterling Hill and the neighboring Franklin deposit, some of which have been found nowhere else. It will be on display in the new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, as part of a special room dedicated to minerals and light.
According to legend, when actress María Félix commissioned this necklace, she carried live baby crocodiles into Cartier in Paris to serve as models for the design. The realistic sculpting of the gold includes the scutes of a crocodile’s skin. There are 60.02-carats of fancy intense yellow diamonds and 66.86-carats of emeralds in the setting. This necklace will be on display in the special exhibition Beautiful Creatures, in the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery, a new temporary exhibition space in the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
Artist Salvador Dalí added surrealist details to all of his fine jewelry creations. For instance, this starfish has branches inexplicably sprouting from the body and includes two butterfly pins that were conceived as part of the design. The flexibility of the starfish’s arms allowed the original owner, philanthropist and ballet lover Rebekah Harkness, to wear it on top of her shoulder with the limbs draping down her body. The piece will be on display in the special exhibition Beautiful Creatures, opening in the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery, a new temporary exhibition space in the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
The entrance to the new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals features a pair of towering, sparkling amethyst geodes that are among the world’s largest on display. The one shown weighs around 12,000 pounds (5,440 kg), or about as much as four black rhinos, and was collected from the Bolsa Mine in Uruguay.
American designer Joel Arthur Rosenthal has created only a few snake necklaces. This one, which will be on display in the special exhibition Beautiful Creatures, opening in the Melissa and Keith Meister Gallery, a new temporary exhibition space in the Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, was made in 1990. It features JAR’s signature blend of pavé-set precious and semiprecious stones (sapphires, amethysts, and diamonds) in a silver and gold setting. French actress Jacqueline Delubac nicknamed the necklace “Dudule” after she acquired it from JAR. The moniker, a proper French name, could have been a play on Delubac’s last name.
The 632-carat Patricia Emerald is a dihexagonal, or 12-sided, crystal and is considered one of the great emeralds in the world. Found in Colombia in 1920, it was named after the mine owner’s daughter. This specimen, which will be on display in the new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals, is one of the very few large emeralds that have been preserved uncut