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The Splendor Diamond
The Mouawad Splendour
Weight: 101.84 carats
Color: "D" (colorless)
Clarity: IF (Internally Flawless)
An unusual eleven-sided pear shape D-color and flawless diamond weighing 101.84
carats - this is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world. It is described by gemologists as colorless and internally flawless – adding even further to the diamond’s rarity.
In 2005 the diamond is valued at $13,970,000 or Thirteen Million, Nine Hundred Seventy Thousand
United States Dollars. It is owned by Robert Mouawad.
The Mouawad Diamond Story
It was in the early 1970s that Robert Mouawad first arrived on the jewellery auction scene. Soon his very presence in the sale-room was enough to send pulses racing when it was realized that a new, significant player had appeared. Along with his two contemporaries, Sheikh Ahmed Fitaihi of Jeddah and Laurence Graff of London, he has been responsible for some of the astonishing record diamond prices achieved in recent years.
Born in 1945, Robert Mouawad has purchased a number of the world's great diamonds, including the Nassak, the
Indore Pears, the Premier
Rose, the Jubilee, the Queen of
Holland, the Tereschenko and the Taylor-Burton.
Robert Mouawad has never been content with acquiring only historical diamonds, adding several modern-cut gems to his list. At a New York auction in 1988 he purchased the 59-carats "D" flawless pear shape later to become known as the "Star of Abdel-Aztz" after His Majesty King Fahd's youngest son. There have also been two fancy lilac pink gems, the
Mouawad Lilac, a step cut weighing 24.44 carats, and the
Mouawad Pink, a cushion cut weighing 21.06 carats.
Others, in increasing order of sizes, include the Mouawad White, a 48.28-carats marquise; the Mouawad Splendour, an eleven-sided pear shape weighing 101.84 carats; the Mouawad Monolith, an emerald cut of 104.02 carats; and the currently unnamed polygonal, a 106.00-carats modified pear shape.
"Each diamond is unique and has personality traits, some more appealing than others. The whiteness or fancy colour, the size, the clarity, the cut, the immortal character, are all factors that contribute to the overall beauty of a stone. But it is the human touch that unveils its beauty. In its rough state it hides its true potential value. Also, the historical value of a gem, from its formation to its birth on the earth's surface, and the many lives it has affected, are all intangibles that add to its mystique."
Such are the thoughts of a great collector and diamond connoisseur.
Yet not all of Robert Mouawad's acquisitions have been made at auction. In March 1991, in Antwerp, he purchased a 284.6-carats rough diamond that had been found in the Aredor mine in Guinea. Through his own group's office in Belgium, it was fashioned into the largest of all his eponymous diamonds: a magnificent emerald cut later named the
Mouawad Magic, weighing 108.81 carats. It measures 32.91 by 20.73 by 16.83 mm, this "D" colour, internally flawless gem is considered a collection item and is consequently "not for sale" at the present time.
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