The History & Splendor of the Kazanjian Red Diamond

Red is the rarest color in diamonds. So rare in fact, that less than 20 are known to exist in the world today. But it’s not just it’s fiery shade that makes the Kazanjian Red Diamond so special. It has an amazing back story.

The gem was first uncovered in Litchenburg, South Africa in the 1920’s, a heaping stone weighing 25 carats. A diamond broker paid just eight pounds per carat for it and then sent it to Amsterdam to be cut and polished by the Goudiv brothers.

The youngest brother did not even think it was worth working, but the elder (and wiser) brother called in the firm’s master cutter. The cutter studied the diamond for seven months and cut and polished the stone down to a 5.05-carat emerald cut.

The gem traveled twice to Tiffany & Company in New York, by 1944, to keep it out of the hands of the Nazis. Later it was sent to Germany where it was hidden among other confiscated gems. After the war, the diamond merchant Louis Asscher was given gemstones found hidden in a salt mine near Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s retreat in Bavaria, and found amongst the long list of diamonds, “one ruby.”

Asscher was a smart guy and recognized it as the Red Diamond. It was eventually sold to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer and then to the Royal Asscher Diamond Company, which sold it to a private collector in 1970.

Then it disappeared. Whereever it was from 1970-2007 is still a mystery. It reappeared on the table of Douglas Kazanjian, who with much research and study, was able to discover it’s history. It is now on display at the American Museum of Natural History for those who would like to view it’s splendor in person.