Worlds Largest Blue Star Sapphire Found in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s gem industry, for which sapphire is the main export, is worth at least £70m ($103m) annually.

Blue star sapphires are so named because of the distinctive mark found at their Centre. “The moment I saw it, I decided to buy,” the current owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the BBC World Service’s Newsday program. “When the stone was brought to me I suspected that it might be the world’s largest blue star sapphire. So I took a risk and bought it.”

The owner said it was “absolutely confidential” how much he paid for it. The previous record holder weighed 1,395 carats. The new gem was mined in the city of Ratnapura, in southern Sri Lanka, which is known as the City of Gems. It has been named the Star of Adam by its current owner, after a Muslim belief that Adam arrived in Sri Lanka after being sent away from the Garden of Eden. It is claimed he then lived on the slopes of a mountain now known as Adam’s Peak. The owner of the Star of Adam said he bought it thinking “this was not a piece of jewelry but an exhibition piece”.

A 17kg (18 stone six pounds) rock containing sapphires was revealed in 2013, but the final weight of the gems inside is not yet known. Sri Lanka’s Gem and Jewelry Association said in 2011 that the engagement ring for Catherine Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, included a sapphire mined in the country in the 1970s. It was previously owned by Diana, Princess of Wales.

– Source by Hiru Gossip