The Nature Of Diamonds Opens At Royal Ontario Museum

From Saturday, October 25, 2008 to Sunday, March 22, 2009, the exhibition will be displayed in the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall, located on Level B2 in the Royal Ontario Museum’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. At this time, the ROM is the sole Canadian venue to host the exhibition during its exclusive North American tour.

Exploring humankind’s ongoing fascination with the diamond, The Nature of Diamonds provides an in-depth examination of it as a natural substance, digging into its geologic origins, how it is mined, its cultural significance in art, literature, and ornamentation, and its numerous uses in modern science and technology.

The Nature of Diamonds is organised by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York in collaboration with the Royal Ontario Museum; the Houston Museum of Natural Science; and The Field Museum, Chicago. Exhibition curator is George E. Harlow of the AMNH’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. The exhibition showcases approximately 500 brilliant objects, drawn from private collections and major museums from around the world. Lenders to the exhibition include esteemed companies such as Cartier, Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels, and the ROM’s Presenting Sponsor, De Beers Canada.

William Thorsell, Royal Ontario Museum Director and CEO, states, "The Nature of Diamonds is a remarkable exhibition, brilliantly highlighting the ROM’s dual mandate of natural history and world cultures. Once again, we have worked with renowned institutions, including our good friends at the American Museum of Natural History, to bring our visitors an extremely comprehensive, and utterly beautiful, exhibition focusing on a fascinating subject.”

Exhibition curator at the ROM, Dr. Kim Tait, Associate Curator of Mineralogy in the ROM’s Natural History department, says, “The ROM is producing an insightful video entitled Crystal Clear: Diamonds from Canada's North that showcases the fairly recent discovery of Canadian diamonds, as well as highlighting the mines in Canada, and the ones opening this year. The ROM is particularly proud that this video will travel to other venues hosting the exhibition during its tour.”

De Beers Canada is the exhibition’s Presenting Sponsor. “For thousands of years, diamonds have held a special place in many cultures around the world,” states Jim Gowans, President and CEO of De Beers Canada. “We are proud to be associated with the ROM and The Nature of Diamonds to showcase the origins, history and allure of one of the rarest materials on earth.”

Magnificent highlights are showcased throughout the exhibition. Among them is the ROM’s own oil painting of Marie de Medici, Queen of France (1573-1642) and the second wife of Henry IV. She is adorned in an impressive amount of jewels, including diamond upon diamond. An imposing 1.2 by 3 metres (4 by 10 feet), it was painted by Flemish Frans Pourbus the younger, circa 1610. Other exhibition highlights include a 15 cm long shoulder brooch produced as a special order by Cartier, New York in 1928. Composed of round old-cut diamonds and platinum, the dazzling accessory was formerly owned by Sir Elton John. A stunning layered white gold mesh necklace dotted with rough diamonds and cultured keshi pearls recently created by acclaimed Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry for Tiffany & Company is also noteworthy.

THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition is divided into seven informative sections, each of which focuses on different qualities of the diamond. What is Diamond? introduces visitors to the diamond as a natural substance through an exploration of its physical qualities. A hands-on model of the diamond’s crystal structure, an interactive display demonstrating its remarkable ability to conduct heat, and an extensive variety of diamond specimens, as found in nature, demonstrate the mineral’s diversity and highlight the dazzling beauty that has led to its legendary status.

The Source of Diamonds on Earth illustrates that diamonds are moved from deep within the Earth to the surface by the action of rare, explosive volcanoes that create “diamond pipes”. Displayed in this section are samples of rare diamond specimens, including the 25-carat Engelhard diamond and the transparent and colourless 4-carat Minton diamond. Both specimens are exposed in a kimberlite matrix from the Kimberley Mine and De Beers Mine, respectively, both of South Africa.

The Historical Galleries section illuminates the fascinating cultural and historical significance of the mineral. This section presents a historical panorama of diamond legend and lore, as well as the diamond’s role in adornment. Ancient and medieval jewellery, manuscripts, and artifacts demonstrate how diamonds moved from India to the west. An intricately engraved sapphire ring, showing a Winged Victory figure, is notable as it offers indirect evidence of early diamond technology: the diamond is the only material harder than sapphire and, therefore, capable of inscribing it. A magnificent selection of jewellery from the 15th through 19th centuries, as well as an impressive collection of diamond betrothal rings, illustrates historical adornment. Other modern pieces, including a platinum eternity ring with 35 baguette diamonds weighing nearly three carats, created in 2002 and based on Marilyn Monroe’s ring from her 1954 marriage to Joe DiMaggio, beautifully demonstrate the transition from “royal diamonds” to “everyone’s diamonds”. An assortment of historically significant artifacts loaned by the Hispanic Society of America is also included in this section. Many of these objects, including a beautiful tiara-like hair ornament, have not been seen by the public in 50 years and have never been on loan.

The section Diamond Sources and Diamond Exploration and Mining looks at the story of worldwide historical and contemporary diamond exploration. Different types of mining are looked at, as is the diamond’s progression from mine to dealer and its use in industry or as a gem. The ROM is proud to include a video on the Canadian Mining Industry, providing information on the history and current state of the Canadian diamond industry. Visitors may be surprised to learn that Canada, since the 1998 opening of its first diamond mine, is the third largest diamond producer (in value) in the world. This section also explores the unique Canadian diamond deposits and the manner in which they are mined, emphasizing the often hazardous diamond exploration in the Canadian tundra and describing the mining at the Snap Lake and Victor mines. Highlighted here is a case of natural diamond crystals from around the world, including Australia, Brazil, the Central African Republic, Canada, China, Congo, Guyana, Namibia, South Africa and the United States. Beautiful rough and cut diamonds from the ROM’s renowned collections are among this section’s highlights.

The walk-in Gem Vault houses some of the exhibition’s most dazzling objects. Included here is a stunning array of outstanding gems from around the world, including a corsage ornament belonging to Princess Mathilde, niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, measuring approximately 11.5 by 14.5 cm and comprised of an incredible 2,600 diamonds and the dramatic and delicate Question Mark necklace (1890) created by the famed House of Boucheron of France. The Vault’s Milky Way necklace consists of a platinum grid intricately adorned with 2,000 diamonds. A De Beers Diamonds International Award winner in 2000, the massive piece was created by Torontonian Dieter Huebner for Brinkhaus Jewellers, Vancouver in a salute to the millenium. The Aurora Butterfly of Peace, consisting of an astounding 240 multi-coloured diamonds, collected over twelve years and showing the astounding range of diamond colours in nature, is positioned near the Vault's entrance. Nearby, jewellery pieces worn and enjoyed by the stars of yesterday including Mae West and Joan Crawford and, more recently, Salma Hayek are also on view.

The Four Cs informs that cut, carat, colour, and clarity are the standards by which diamonds are judged as gemstones. This section enlightens visitors as to how a diamond is prepared for trade and the transformation of raw diamond into gemstone is illustrated in a specially produced video, From Rough Cut to Cut Gem.

The final section, Diamonds in Industry, Science and Technology demonstrates that the diamond’s unique qualities render it perfectly suited to dual roles as a gem and in industry. Recent breakthroughs in synthetic diamonds have facilitated their widespread use in technology. For example, the diamond’s ability to conduct heat has major new applications for electronics and its resistance to becoming wet makes it invaluable as a surgical knife (in that it cuts cleanly and won’t stick to tissue). A number of these applications make it clear that the diamond’s future role in technology and industry is both boundless and intriguing.

The Nature of Diamonds is one prominent component of the ROM’s A Season of Gems. Another notable element is the Teck Cominco Suite of Earth Sciences Galleries, scheduled to open in December 2008. This 6,900 square-foot permanent gallery space will showcase the ROM’s exceptional specimens of minerals, gems, rocks, and meteorites, a collection among the finest in North America. Occupying the entire length of the second floor of the Weston Family Wing, the Teck Cominco Suite is divided into the Vale Inco Limited Gallery of Minerals, the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame Gallery and the Gallery of Gems and Gold.

The fascinating displays are contextualized and illuminated by over 50 interactive touch stations and compelling video exhibits. Also a part of A Season of Gems is Light & Stone: Gems from the Collection of Michael Scott, the inaugural exhibition in the Teck Cominco Suite’s Gallery of Gems and Gold. The private collection of Michael M. Scott, with few rivals in the world outside of the royal families, showcases approximately 200 pieces of stunning jewellery, gemstones cut and unset, as well as modern interpretations of gemstones as art. Opening in mid-December, Light & Stone will be on display for one year. -- www.rom.on.ca