Aurora Butterfly of Peace: A History of the Collection

The Aurora Butterfly of Peace, on exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Photo: Kristjan Stone for NHMLAC.

The Aurora Butterfly of Peace: 240 natural fancy colored diamonds, here viewed at an unusual angle. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

When New Jersey diamond dealer Alan Bronstein saw his first colored diamond in 1979 he was immediately captivated. He thought the canary yellow diamond shone like the sun. Surprisingly to him, such beautiful stones were something of an underground commodity. Back in the 1970s and 80s, colored diamonds were not commercially popular and 99% of dealers had no interest in them.  Bronstein began to collect these diamonds, buying one stone at time from the few other dealers who loved them. Diamond dealers tend to be secretive, hoarding knowledge, protecting their sources. A few dealers were willing to sell the colored diamonds and to teach him more about the stones and their origins. These dealers often became his close friends and mentors and together they could share their enthusiasm for the elusive stones.

Bronstein’s collection grew gradually, with some diamonds sold and replaced by better examples. By 1989 he had amassed a fine assortment. He arranged 60 stones into the outline of a butterfly, determined to fill it in. Over the next twelve years he did just that, eventually reaching the current arrangement of 240 diamonds. The Butterfly is a spectacular work of art in harmony with nature. The stones are perfectly arranged to show a wide spectrum of color that natural diamonds can have. The selection process of placing diamonds of similar size and color on each wing also creates an amazing display under ultraviolet light. Stones of the same color may also show a similar color in fluorescence. When seen in UV light, the butterfly becomes a rainbow of glowing diamonds.

An early version of the Aurora Butterfly (scanned image). Photo Courtesy of Alan Bronstein.

The Butterfly grows as more diamonds are added (scanned image). Photo courtesy of Alan Bronstein.

For years Mr. Bronstein showed the collection only to friends and colleagues who would most appreciate the rarity of the diamonds (as well as the time and effort that went in to obtaining them). Eventually he showed the Butterfly to Nicola Bulgari, a man of discerning tastes who is not easily impressed.  When Bulgari saw the Butterfly he exclaimed “This, I have never seen before!”. That moment convinced Mr. Bronstein that he should show the collection to a larger audience. The first public showing of the Butterfly was at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. At that time it contained only 162 diamonds. When it had reached its current size, Mr. Bronstein approached the Curator of Minerals at the Smithsonian, Dr. Jeffrey Post. Dr. Post visited Mr. Bronstein’s New York office intending to stay for ten minutes. He left four hours later with a promise to have the Butterfly displayed in Washington D.C.

 

Left to right: Dr. Eloïse Gaillou, Assoc. Curator of Mineral Sciences with Alan Bronstein, Curator of the Aurora Collection and Dr. Jeffrey Post, Curator, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Photo by Kristjan Stone for NHMLAC.

Associate Curator Eloïse Gaillou welcoming guests at the unveiling of the Aurora Butterfly of Peace exhibit. Photo: Kristjan Stone for NHMLAC.

On December 4^th, 2013 the Butterfly arrived at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Mr. Bronstein believes the Butterfly belongs in museums dedicated to science and education. He stresses his admiration and support for institutions whose mission is to inspire a love of knowledge and concern for our natural world. Though the Butterfly is a stunning artistic piece, it is more importantly a part of the Earth, created by nature. He believes its greatest significance lies in its ability to impart a sense of wonder of the universe. There are few, if any, opportunities for most people to see such a variety of colored diamonds together in one exhibit and it can make a lasting impression. He has seen children (even very young ones) get so excited at the sight of the diamonds and ask so many questions about them. The beauty of the Butterfly is universally appreciated and draws people in, they cannot help but wonder where the diamonds come from and what makes them so beautiful.  

Mr. Alan Bronstein's speech at the unveiling of the Aurora Butterfly of Peace exhibit. Photo: Kristjan Stone for NHMLAC.

We are so happy that the Butterfly has now alit in the Hixon Gem Vault at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Gathering around the display case in the Gem Vault for the unveiling. Photo: Kristjan Stone for NHMLAC.

Mr. Alan Bronstein unveiling the Aurora Butterfly of Peace in the Gem Vault. Photos: Kristjan Stone for NHMLAC.

Left to right: Annette Bronstein, Eloïse Gaillou and Alan Bronstein.

Young admirers. Photo: Kristjan Stone for NHMLAC.

Let's end with some close-up pictures of the Butterfly of Peace, as never seen before. All  pictures below are by Eloïse Gaillou.

The Aurora Butterfly of Peace: bringing it to the NHMLAC

The Aurora Butterfly of Peace: an art piece composed of 240 natural fancy colored diamonds. Photo: Robert Weldon. Copyright: Alan Bronstein.

COLORED DIAMONDS

By now, I think that most of you know my passion for colored diamonds. Yes, they are pretty and some are extremely expensive. But my interest is mainly in their scientific significance. It is because they contain fortunate imperfections that they have color. These imperfections can tell us more about the environment in which diamonds grow. In particular, I study the pinks and the blues: 

- pink (to purple and red) diamonds have undergone some intense plastic deformation while still in the Earth's mantle (150km or below). To accommodate extreme forces in the deep Earth, diamond might not break, but instead re-arrange its atomic structure, creating slip planes (or even twinning, in the case of pink diamonds). This can only occur under the high pressure and high temperature regime of the Earth's mantle. But what is the exact imperfection that gives the pink color and why is it so rare to find pink diamonds?

- blue diamonds contain boron impurities, which give them their characteristic blue color (such as in the Hope diamond). But what is boron doing so deep inside the Earth? Boron is a volatile element and is mostly found at the surface of the Earth, not really expected to be found 150 km deep or below. How did get there?

These are only a few questions that I'm trying to answer.

Wing shot of the Butterfly of Peace. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

THE QUEST FOR SAMPLES

During my quest for samples when I was a post doc at the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. Alan Bronstein crossed my path. As you can imagine, it's not easy to find such rare and expensive diamonds (here, I'm talking about over $2M per carat for the best pink and blue diamonds!). Even the Smithsonian does not have THAT many blues or pinks. And hey, sometimes, you can't do all the experiments you want / need on the Hope or on the Blue Heart diamonds... Can you imagine putting a multi-million dollar into the crusher?

Mr. Alan Bronstein, a New York based diamond dealer, owner of the company Aurora Gems came into play when curator Jeffrey Post of the Smithsonian asked him to help us in our scientific investigation, back in 2010. Mr. Bronstein told us that he will try to help us. A few weeks later, he had 70 blue diamonds for us to analyze! Incredible! Thanks to this new set of data, we were able to complete our study, and publish an article on blue diamonds.

Following up on our interests on colored diamonds, Mr. Bronstein suggested that I should get a chance to study one of his collections of fancy colored diamonds. He sent the Aurora Butterfly of Peace to the Smithsonian in August 2011, so I can "play" with the diamonds in the collection. I knew already that I got the position of Associate Curator at the NHMLAC and had a lot of research projects to wrap up both at the Carnegie Institution for Science and at the Smithsonian. But how often would I have the chance to look at 240 fancy colored diamonds?
So, here I was, looking at every single pink and blue diamond in the collection (I had to make a choice of what I needed to study). My advisors Jim Butler and Jeff Post helped me collecting all the data (infrared spectrometry and phosphorescence, mostly).

When I left the Smithsonian, at the end of 2011, I knew that I needed more time to work on the Butterfly. I was still not completely done with the pinks, didn't study the violet to grey from Argyle, and didn't get the chance to have a look at the orange diamonds, which are the least studed of all... and are now "hot" in the market place ($35.5M for a 14.82-ct fancy vivid orange diamond -the largest known-).

BRINGING THE BUTTERFLY OF PEACE TO LA

Still in regular contact with Mr. Bronstein after I left the Smithsonian, we agreed that the Butterfly should come and visit LA, after its stop at the Boston Fine Art Museum. After getting the agreement of the executives of the NHMLAC, and getting all the paperwork, "voilà"! The Butterfly of Peace is in the hands of the Mineral Science team! It will be on exhibit from Dec. 5th 2013 until June 1st 2014. And... I get the chance to look at the diamonds I didn't have the time to look at the last time I had the art piece in my hands.

When we received the Butterfly and I opened the box containing the diamonds, my heart pumped a few stronger, faster beats! Yes, what an art-piece! Honestly, no photo can do it justice. You know how great a single diamond looks like. Now, imagine 240 of them, all of different colors. AND arranged in a butterfly shape. It is just extraordinary!

A moving moment when I received the Butterfly of Peace. Opening it for the first time after 2 years was a great feeling.Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

Alright, here it is. Wow....... now, let's check if all the diamonds are here! Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

Mr. Alan Bronstein and deceased Harry Rodman put the art-piece together, one stone at a time, dedicating it to "the dissemination of peace and harmony among all men, religions and races". When you look at the Butterfly, peace definitely surrounds you. Well, at least it works on me, and I can't ever get tired of staring at it. Alright, I have to admit, it's even better when you get the chance to play with the diamonds!

Talking about playing, here are a few shots I got of some of the diamonds.

"The Stars of the Night". 

Just love this association of colors. The orange heart-shape diamond (1.10 ct) comes from the body of the butterfly, the yellows (1.11 & 1.02 ct) and pinks from the wings. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

Pink diamonds from the Butterfly of Peace collection. From left to right: 0.66, 0.48 and 0.49 carats. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

Opalescent diamonds from the Butterfly of Peace collection. From left to right: 1.94, 1.95 and 1.58 carats. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

 

Compare a 1.62-carat pink (left) with a 1.21-carat bluish-violet diamond, most likely coming from the Argyle mine in Australia. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

Colorful diamonds from the Butterfly of Peace: green (1.12 ct), pink (0.15 ct) and orangy-yellow (1.31 ct). Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

"You are stealing my heart". 

All extracted from the Butterfly of Peace, of course! Blue diamonds: 0.53 & 0.56 ct; orange: 1.10ct. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

 By now, you understood that I like the orange heart-shaped diamond! Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

 And I love the white diamonds as well (1.92 ct). Here, associated with this stunning yellow diamond (1.19 ct). Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

Great combination of blue (0.68 & 0.58 ct) and yellow (1.05 ct) diamonds, from the wing of the Butterfly of Peace. Photo / Copyright: Eloïse Gaillou.

FLUORESCENCE

The Aurora Butterfly of Peace, under exposure to UV. A lot of the diamonds fluoresce. Notice that the owner tried to match not only the color, but also the fluorescence on each side of the butterfly's wing. Photo: Robert Weldon. Copyright: Alan Bronstein.

I already explained the cause of color for diamonds in previous blog posts. But I never did for fluorescence. Here is a little blurb on the matter.

It is known that about thirty-seven percent of near-colorless diamonds fluorescence; out of those, ninety-seven percent display a blue fluorescence. The percentage of fluorescing colored diamonds have not been reported yet, but a comprehensive study on fluorescence of colored diamonds can be found in Eaton-Magaña et al. (2007). A blue fluorescence is also commonly seen in some colored diamonds, such as pink, white and Cape yellow diamonds. This blue fluorescence for both colorless and colored diamonds is often due to the N3 center (aggregated of 3 nitrogen atoms around a vacancy), very often associated with the so-called Blue-Band. The Blue Band (also named Band A) is possibly related to the presence of dislocations inside the diamond structure. Yellowish-green emission is fairly common among brown and yellow-green diamonds. It is often due to the H3 center (two atoms of nitrogen around a vacancy) and is created during plastic deformation. Diamonds presenting an orange tint often display yellow fluorescence. Blue type IIb diamonds never display fluorescence, but they sometimes show phosphorescence. In this case, most of them glow a faint blue-green for only a few seconds after exposure to UV light (especially short-wave UV). In rare cases (the Hope and the Wittelsbach-Graff diamonds for example), blue diamonds will show a long-lasting (more than a minute) red glow (refer to this blog post for more information on the Hope's phosphorescence). Even if the exact nature of the blue-green and red phosphorescence is not yet completely understood, recent research suggests the involvement of boron interacting with other defects or impurities (creating an acceptor-donor pair recombination).

Look at this fluorescence! Photo / Copyright: Chris Raum.

Colored diamond frenzy: the Lady Heart Collection at NHM

Now on temporary display at 

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 

Until December 1st, 2013 

The Lady Orquidea is a 2.00 carat Fancy Vivid Orange diamond heart mounted in a heart shaped bezel accented with pave white diamonds. Vivid orange diamonds are believed to be the rarest of the colored diamonds. Pure orange natural diamonds are extremely scarce and can only be classified as such if there is no trace of brown in the stone.

Why is there such a frenzy over fancy-colored diamonds these days? Why are they so highly sought after? Why are they regularly setting new price records at auction? The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) is pleased to offer its visitors a chance to see for themselves! By popular demand, NHM is extending its exhibition of The Lady Heart Diamond Collection until December 1st, 2013. Each of the five rare diamonds is a different amazing color: red, pink, orange, yellow and blue. The stones are all heart-shaped range in weight from 1.71 to 2.28 carats , and are set in separate pieces of custom-designed gold jewelry.

"A heart-shaped diamond itself is immensely rare,” says Bernard Bachoura, a fourth generation jeweler from Southern California’s Sophia Fiori and designer of The Lady Heart Diamond Collection. “While the diamond is in the rough, the final shape of the stone is determined by the diamond cutter based on which shape will best maximize carat weight, symmetry, and value. The unusual heart shape requires the cutter to sacrifice significant carat weight in order to achieve the desired result. It makes the heart shape a risk the cutter must be certain he or she is willing to take."

As for the diamonds themselves, the grade of Fancy Vivid color given by the Gemological Institution of America (GIA) to each single diamond in the collection represents the highest grade for a colored diamond. According to GIA, of the millions of diamonds mined each year, only a handful achieves this top grade. The pure red color of the 1.71-carat diamond is the most sought-after in the gem market today, while the 2.00-carat pure orange diamond is probably the rarest to be found.

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The Lady Diantha is an internally flawless 2.28 carat Fancy Vivid Blue heart shape diamond. This heart shape diamond is mounted in a heart shaped bezel accented with pave colorless and yellow diamonds. Blue diamonds are given their color by extremely low concentrations of boron within the stone. Blue diamonds have frequently been the center of attention among royalty, including King Louis XIV. The rarity of the Diantha’s diamond shape, color, and clarity further define the Lady Heart Collection’s historic importance as a distinctive and timeless assortment of colored diamonds.

The Lady Leilani is a 1.73 carat Fancy Vivid Pink heart shape diamond, set in a modern rhythmic white gold tear drop pendant with pave white diamond accents.

Here, the back of the Lady Leilani necklace, showing the wonderful design created by Bernard Bachoura of Sophia Fiori, for our special display.

The Lady Mandara is a 1.71 carat Fancy Vivid Red heart-shaped diamond, mounted with 5.90 carat total weight of colorless pave diamonds. Pure red diamonds are the rarest in the pink diamond family. The Mandara Fiori is documented by GIA as being one of the largest vivid red diamonds in existence. It is also documented as the largest vivid heart shaped diamond GIA has ever certified. Proportionally, this diamond is a perfect heart shape, rather than a modified heart like most heart-shaped diamonds tend to be. Before this stone was cut there was absolute certainty, because of its nature, that the final shape would be a heart. This diamond is the anchor of the Lady Heart Collection, reaffirming the collection’s unparalleled significance.

The back of the Lady Mandara necklace.

The Lady Zahira is a 2.26 carat Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond heart uniquely embedded in a rose gold encasing. Originating from the Zimi mines of south Africa, the color of this diamond is more intense than most vivid yellow diamonds.Even in very low light, the intensity of a vivid yellow color is evident. This perfectly cut heart shape not only captures the most vivid yellow found in nature, but is also the most intense color in the Fiori Collection.

The back of the Lady Zahira necklace, enhanced with colorless diamonds.

Bernard Bachoura from Sophia Fiori, the designer of the Lady Heart Collection, is helping putting the display together. Come and see it at the Natural History Museum!