Episode 014: World's Biggest Diamond Heist

Hello everyone… salutations. Welcome to “Tea & Gemstones,” a podcast for talking about anything and everything to do with jewelry. No detail is too small, no fact is uninteresting. I am your host, Jen. I am alifetime sparkle enthusiast who created this podcast to give my fellow jewelry lovers a little break… I want these episodes to be like auditory sweatpants. Just comfortable, easy to put on… makes you happy. No matter what I’m talking about, I hope it feels like you’ve set up in your living room with friends to chat, laugh and learn. Haha, it is very on brand for me to be laying out expectations for relaxation… but before we get started with this episode, I want to ask, if you are enjoying this podcast, it would be awesome if you could leave a rating and a review. On Apple Podcasts you can do both, on Spotify it’s just a one out of five-star rating. Giving the show your rating and reviews is what puts Tea & Gemstones into the search algorithm so we can be discoverable if someone types “jewelry” or “gemstones” into the podcast search bar. A huge thank you to everyone who has left reviews already, at the end of this episode I’m going to give shout outs, so stay tuned for that. Seriously, yall have been wonderfully supportive, as of the end of January, Tea & Gemstones is number one on Apple Podcasts search page for the jewelry category. Okay, enough technology talk, haha, let’s get started.

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Today is February 15th. While for a lot of people the date February 15th only carries the significance of being the day after Valentine’s, the 15th is also a pretty interesting anniversary of an event. And event that like Valentines, is associated with diamonds… but not diamonds gifted in displays of love… no, no. The diamonds of February 15th, all 100 million of them… were stolen. Today is the 19th anniversary of the Antwerp Diamond Heist, aka the largest diamond heist of all time, straight up one of the biggest robberies in the entire world. It’s an enormous criminal act… and yet, no one is currently in jail for it. In fact, only the ringleader of the theft, he is the only one who even served any jail time. And the 100 million in diamonds? Almost entirely unrecovered. But how did this happen? Let me warn you- while this heist story has a very ambiguous ending… the beginning and middle are truly spectacular. I would say it’s like real life Ocean’s 11, except it’s better. So, it all begins with a formidable place. The Antwerp Diamond District. As you might have guessed from the name, haha, the Antwerp Diamond District is located in the city of Antwerp, in Belgium. It covers a several city blocks, about one square mile. About 80% of the world’s rough diamonds pass through the district at some point in their life, especially when they’re a rough stone, because the district has about 380 workshops, employing over 3,500 brokers, merchants, and diamond cutters. In 2003, the year of the robbery, over 3 billion dollars in sales were logged in the district. It’s one of the densest concentrations of wealth in the world. Sounds like a big juicy target, right? I mean, yes, it is… but that target is well defended. For starters, the district has it’s own police force paid for by the Belgium government. There are security cameras everywhere, running 24/7. The entire perimeter has steel columns recessed in the ground that can rise up and prevent any car from getting in or out. In the middle of this high tech mini-town of security, is one building called, rather uncreatively, haha the “Antwerp World Diamond Center.” Built in 1973, this building is the heart of the district. Here merchants can rent out storefronts, office space or a personal apartment. But also… there’s a vault in the Center, and it’s full of safety deposit boxes. This vault was the heist’s target.

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To establish the magnitude of this robbery, we have to discuss the vault. First, it is located two stories underground. There’s an external camera outside right over the door, and cameras all around. There are two locks on the door; one is a combo dial with over 100 million possible combinations, and a key lock that only fits a very specific and unique key… more on that later. The actual door itself is made of 3 tons of solid steel, rated by its manufacturing to be able to withstand over 12 hours of drilling. But never mind how long it would take to drill through; inside this monstrous steel slab are two nifty features: a seismic vibration sensor that would set off an alarm if a drill even started it’s work, and a set of magnets. The magnets were a small panel next to the vault door, almost like one of those plate covers you put over an unused electrical outlet. The magnet panel served to detect if the door latch moved away from the wall. If it did, you guessed it, alarm goes off. If somehow you get through the locks, get the door open without the sensor or magnets going off, behind the door is a steel grate, that also requires it’s own key. So, then if you get through the door and the grate and into the vault itself, inside there’s another security camera watched 24/7 by a guard, a light sensor that triggers an alarm if it, you know, senses light… AND a combo heat and motion sensor that detects any temperature changes to the vault’s air or the movement of a person coming inside. …how do you beat all that? Not alone you don’t. You come in with a vision and you use a team of specialists. Who is the mastermind who saw a possible big score where everyone else would see an impossibility? It’s the ringleader I mentioned earlier, a suave Italian professional thief named Leonardo No-tar-bar-tolo. Leonardo started renting an office in the Diamond Center in 2000… yeah, a full three years before the actual robbery. See, Leonardo had a theory- with all the technology and security features- Achilles heel of the diamond center was complacently. They thought they were un-robbable… therefore, they weren’t on the lookout for thieves.

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For three years, Leonardo made himself part of the everyday background of the diamond center. He played the part of an Italian businessman and ran a semi-legit diamond business. But not only did he rent an office, he also rented an apartment to live in actually inside the center itself, which as a resident he received a 24 hour access key card to come and go freely. As a seller and a resident, Leonardo also got vault access during business hours whenever he wanted, which seems mind-blowing to me, but it’s true! He used this access to his ultimate advantage. Now, like something out of James Bond, Leonardo had teeny tiny camera mounted in the top of a pen he kept poking out of the top of his shirt pocket. He took hundreds and hundreds of covert photographs while he was in the vault, and he and his team used the photos to, get this, create a perfect replica of the center’s vault in a warehouse outside the district. I told you, it’s like real life Ocean’s 11! Before I start telling you exactly how Leonardo and his team beat the center’s defenses… let me introduce you to the four men he recruited… again, like something out of a movie, we only know these men by aliases. There was Speedy: a longtime friend of Leonardo’s, and a good thief, but known to be paranoid and anxious. The next guy’s name was “the Monster”: a very large and strong man who was a world-class lockpicker, electrician, mechanic and driver. The third man was called “the Genius,” now that’s a winning alias, haha no pressure, but don’t worry, he lives up the name- the Genius was apparently an expert in conquering complex alarm systems, which I would say the center’s definitely qualified as complex. The final member of the robbery team rocks the alias of “the king of keys”, who we believe was an older man, called the best key forgers in the world… while the other men on the team received possible identifications from police eventually, the king of keys has remained a ghost all these 19 years, not one whiff of him. So. How did these five men break in and out of the center with 100 million dollars in diamonds? We actually have a lot of information about how they did, both from what they left behind and what Leonardo revealed when questioned by police. The robbery began on Saturday, February 15th. The crew choose a Saturday because the vast majority of the workers and residents of the center were Jewish, meaning Saturday was their Sabbath and no business was done. There also were no guards on duty on the weekend, they put all their faith in the technological defenses, like the sensors and locks, especially. I suppose the wheels of the robbery actually went into motion on the previous day, Friday the 14th. Leonardo went into the vault during business hours, like he had countless times before. Because he was such a regular fixture in the center- remember it’s been three years of him living and working there every single day, the guards didn’t pay any attention to the cameras when he was in the vault. While Leonardo was in the vault on Friday, under the pretense of putting something in his safe deposit box, he sprayed the dual heat and motion sensor with a can of women’s hairspray. This would block the heat sensor from receiving data for the foreseeable future. On Saturday night about midnight, Leonardo and his four-man crew drove up in a rented car and parked nearby. Leonardo stayed in the car with a police scanner to listen and his crew left the vehicle into the night. Now, the diamond center is saturated with video cameras, Leonardo would be very familiar with this fact after living and working there for three years. To avoid all those cameras… the crew just didn’t go start into the center. They actually went next door to a rundown, abandoned office building. The king of keys picked the lock, and they were in. The homerun was that this abandoned office building shared an outdoor balcony garden with the diamond center! In this garden Leonardo had hidden a ladder. The crew used the garden ladder to reach up to a small balcony on the side of the center. This balcony had an infrared sensor on it, but the Genius climbed the ladder and placed a homemade polyester shield carefully in front of the sensor, blocking the crew from detection. Safe from the infrared sensor, the Genius disabled the window alarm. He opened the window, and the crew entered the Antwerp Diamond Center. As they walked down to the vault, they covered the security cameras with black plastic bags. Because of center’s complacently, no one was watching the live streams of the cameras. Now the crew is standing in front of the vault door, with the camera covered by a black bag of course. The three-ton steel door with two locks, the vibration sensor, and the magnets. The Genius began with the magnets. He had created a custom aluminum plate covered in double sided tape. He unscrewed the two bolts holding the magnet panel to the wall and stuck the aluminum plate onto the panel. He could then slide the panel off to the side, away from the door without the magnets ever detecting any movement. The aluminum held the magnets in place, voiding their ability to watch the door. So, the magnets are taken care, but what about the combo dial and the unique physical keyhole? The dial was defeated in the simplest way… Leonardo had recorded the guards spinning the dial with his camera pen. So, that combo dial with over 100 million possibilities? The crew knew the only one that mattered. The simplicity and virtuoso of just recording the guard’s… that’s amazing. But the way the second lock was solved, is kind of maddening, at least, I bet it was for the center security when they found out. So, the unique keylock in the vault door I mentioned earlier, it actually requires a FOOT long physical key to slide in and turn the tumblers. Leonardo had taken sneaky photos and videos of the physical key when the guards had it in their hand to open the vault for him when he was a masquerading center resident, and the king of keys had made a replica. But when they were standing in front of the vault, the king of keys recalled that on the surveillance footage Leonardo had taken, the guards often ducked into a small utility closet near the vault before actually performing the task of opening the massive thing. The king of keys opens the utility closet… and lo and behold, the huge foot long physical key to open the vault is hanging there in the utility closet, on the wall, among the mops and cleaning supplies. The guards didn’t want to schlep it around. So, the king of keys stole the original key and used it to unlock the vault. He actually kept his replica key with him because he didn’t want authorities to know their key system could be copied; and that deception worked, it wasn’t until Leonardo spilled the beans in interrogation that the authorities had any idea about the copycat key. Now, let’s run this down. For just the vault, the crew had bested the cameras, the combo dial lock, the key lock, the vibration sensor (by not drilling just opening the door with the regular locks) and the magnets. At this point, the crew turns all the lights off and swings open the three-ton steel door. No alarms sound. With the lights off- because remember, there’s a light sensor inside the vault, the Monster picks the lock to the steel grate. In practiced form (remember, they had been practicing in their replica vault), the crew moved quickly in the dark. The hair spray burst from Leonardo yesterday protected them from the temperature change of opening the vault door, but the Genius put a Styrofoam box over the dual heat and motion sensor, isolating it. They put a black plastic bag over the interior camera and duct tape over the light sensor. Then the Genius removed a ceiling panel and rewired the alarm system so just in case one of the sensors did try to alert the system, the signal would go nowhere. The crew was in the vault, and safe from detection. Are you rooting for them? As I was researching this… I found myself rooting for them. They’re just being so crafty and smart about this! I mean, stealing is wrong. But this is such a good story. They’re in the vault, and no one knows they’re there. The crew… well, they set to work. Using a special hand crank drill crafted by the king of keys specifically for this job… they tackle the safety deposit boxes. Working from until 5:30am, they emptied 123 of the 160 boxes in the vault, stealing over $100 million in diamonds. They didn’t just steal the diamonds, they stole alllll the legitimizing paperwork for the diamonds too. Duffel bags full to bursting, the crew snuck out of the center the same way they came in, back down the balcony ladder through the joint garden and out the abandoned office building to the waiting car of Leonardo. Oh! On their way out, the crew stole the videotapes from the security cameras, to make their miraculous robbery even more mysterious. The largest diamond heist in the world was done. They were home free…. Right?

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Driving away from the scene of the robbery, the crew was probably feeling pretty good about themselves and what they had just accomplished. Following their meticulous attention to detail, the thieves planned to drive into France and burn all their trash and evidence of their crime, like the gloves they wore the entire time in the vault to avoid leaving DNA. But as they drove, Speedy, Leonardo’s friend, he started to have a panic attack. He didn’t want to be driving around with the evidence… I don’t really follow this logic, because they have $100 million dollars in diamonds, who cares about incriminating paperwork and gloves- but there’s not a lot of logic in panic attacks. Leonardo indulges his buddy, Speedy. ‘Okay, okay, we don’t have to wait to burn our trash in France, let’s pull over and burn it here.” They pull over and carry their paperwork and gear onto some seemingly empty wooden land. Here Speedy continues to panic and doesn’t want to light a fire and draw attention, so he convinces the crew to just throw everything under some bushes. They do, and they drive off. Well. Unlucky for our crew, they do not get to get away with cutting corners. The land they trashed isn’t abandoned, it belongs to a man who has been dealing with local teenagers partying on his property regularly. The very next morning, like just a couple hours later; the man goes through the random trash pile and sees a bunch of envelopes and papers relating to the Antwerp Diamond Center. He calls the cops. The police come and take all the trash to analyze. In the trash, they find a receipt for a sandwich purchased in the wee hours of Saturday morning from a place right outside the diamond center… and the sandwich… which apparently wasn’t very good, was also abandoned with the trash, half-eaten. The police were able to get security footage from the nearby grocery store and saw Leonardo… waiting for his crew who were robbing the vault… Leonardo buying a sandwich. And the police actually pulled DNA from the sandwich and used that to match to Leonardo once they apprehended him. Under police questioning, Leonardo did explain how they had planned and executed the theft. But when the police asked him about the whereabouts for the 100 million in diamonds, Leonardo was like “whoa, whoa, whoa- what? 100 million? We only took 20 million.” He adamantly claimed they had only stolen 20 million in diamonds and the Antwerp Diamond Center was claiming 100 million as insurance fraud. Leonardo’s claim was never really addressed, certainly not proven. Maybe the center was too embarrassed they had been robbed that they inflated the scale of the theft, like somehow that made it more palatable? Like if we’re gonna get robbed, we better really seriously get ROBBED, otherwise how pathetic are we. Well, in 2005 Leonardo (who never gave up the real identities of his crew) was sentenced by the courts at Antwerp to ten years in prison, however in 2009 he got out on parole after only serving four years. But two years later in 2011 he violated parole and had to go back into jail to finish his term until 2017, when he was released. And that was that. While police have some idea who the Genius or the Monster might be, they were never apprehended, certainly never served jail time. And like I said, the king of keys is a straight up ghost. So, remember I said this story has a kinda ambiguous, unsatisfying ending…? Well, that’s the end. The ringleader Leonardo sort of goes to jail- I say “sort of” because he gets out and then goes back in haha And the other four members of the savvy crew, the Genius, the Monster, the King of Keys and Speedy, they’re never caught. Speedy, the one who is sort of responsible for his buddy Leonardo getting nabbed, I do wonder what happened to him. As for the diamonds, whether there were 20 million dollars worth or 100 million dollars worth stolen, the point is a lot of stolen diamonds went out in the world. I always wonder about stones like that. Where did they go, where did they end up? Are they sitting on someone’s finger or glittering on someone’s necklace and they have no idea they’re a stolen Antwerp diamond? Or maybe they’re buried in some secret crime boss’s own vault because he knows exactly what kind of stones they are. Either way, the Antwerp Diamond Heist is legendary. For the sheer boldness audacity of the idea to it’s near flawless execution, it really is a captivating story. People say ‘a diamond is a girl’s best friend,’ but I submit that there isn’t much motivating to a man than diamonds. Maybe gold, haha Maybe the formidability of the diamond center was goal, to conquer it… sure is good advertising for your thieving services if you’re the Genius, or the Monster, or the King of Keys. Speedy might need a new profession, though. But where is Leonardo now? The ringleader of the heist was straight up banned from the country of Belgium and in 2017 after his second release from prison, Leonardo went to Italy. Supposedly he sold the rights to his story to JJ Abrams to make a movie, but then Abrams declined. Pity… I would have liked to see, though with the fantastical nature of the heist, I think it would blur the lines between truth and fiction.

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That’s all for this episode of Tea & Gemstones. Check out the show notes for a link to our website which has full transcripts of every episode. Our theme song is by Joseph McDade with additional music by Audionautix. Tea & Gemstones is on Instagram, at Tea and Gemstones.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has left reviews, here come the shout-outs haha, Thank you to Nons2017, JeVrla, D L Mcewen, Casey Buck, Gab Edits, Rachel TX, whittingtonrachel, tiffy9876, Stephbug77, Rose Ninny, GardenFlyer 2, SBJ Reston, MarzanoStudios, H Marzano 3, Leslielistens, Whatnowcar, G Bid Vuno, jewels of the trade and Cabreraba. If I missed your name, I’m so sorry- that’s the list I have as of the start of February. Please know that as all of you are walking around in the world, my gratitude is following you around like a happy shadow. Okay, I’m out of here haha I have been your host, Jen. Until next time, Stay Sparkly.

T&G EPISODE 014

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“The $100 Million Belgian Diamond Heist Explained.” YouTube, uploaded by RealLifeLore, 16 Mar. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=45el4Qlaj-E&ab_channel=RealLifeLore.

“History.” Antwerp World Diamond Centre, 26 July 2016, www.awdc.be/en/history.

Wikipedia contributors. “Antwerp Diamond District.” Wikipedia, 9 Jan. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antwerp_diamond_district.

Jewelry U Should Know About: Tucson Gem & Mineral Show 2022

Hello, hello everyone… hi… welcome to “Tea and Gemstones,” your podcast home for all things jewelry and gemstones, both contemporary and historical. Sometimes we talk about why diamonds come in every color of the rainbow, analyze red carpet looks, or discuss the very history of gold itself. To take you on these auditory explorations is me, I am your host, Jen. I’m a lifelong sparkle enthusiast with a love for details, because I think that’s where a lot of the joy is. I’m glad you’re here- I hope it’s fun. Okay, let’s get started!

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Sometimes… a lot of times… jewelers, collectors and gemologists are solitary creatures. There are a lot of long days and nights working at the jeweler’s bench or designing, sketching, and researching at the computer or in books… collectors have their pieces in their homes, museums have their splendid galleries… with resources like Instagram and TikTok providing avenues for connection and sharing- but how to bring alllll of this together? Well, there is an event so big, it draws out and together all the gemstone lovers from all over the world to gather in one sunny hot place- Tucson, Arizona, for the annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. It’s considered the largest, oldest, most prestigious gem and mineral show in the world… at least, that’s what it says across the top of the gem show’s own website haha. But it’s not really hyperbole. Before I make your head swim with a lot of big numbers, let’s establish the backstory.

The Tucson Gem & Mineral show is hosted by the Tucson Gem & Mineral Society, a group that was founded in Arizona in 1946. The society has a simple mission statement, I’m quoting from their website, quote, “to encourage interest and study in geology, mineralogy, lapidary and allied earth sciences.” End quote. Side note- ‘lapidary’ is a word that means relating to stones and gems and the work of engraving, cutting or polishing them. In modern times we commonly say ‘gem cutter,’ but it is just as correct and a good bit fancier to call someone a lapidarist. So the society has some lofty goals. They host educational classes and lectures and provide supporting grants to museums for mineral collections and fund scholarships to the University of Arizona for geoscience students. But the big kahuna of the society is without a doubt… the gem show.

The first show was in 1955 because of the determination of a man named Dan Caudle. Mr. Caudle worked as an electrician in the 1950s in the copper mines of Arizona and was a member of the Tucson gem and mineral society. As a hobby, Mr. Caudle used to go out to abandoned mines looking for things like turquoise- he was a “rockhound”- which is a term for an amateur geologist or collector of mineral specimens. He thought it would be fun to have a big gathering to, well, do all the things the society talks about in their mission statement. The society paid $65 to rent out the Helen Keeling Elementary School in Tucson- the school is still around today- and members of the society displayed their personal collections and vendors came and set up booths. In 2013, Mr. Caudle gave his only documented interview about the origins of the first gem show and he talks about how some of his fellow society members hadn’t believed in his vision for the show and he really enjoyed saying, “I told you so,” when over 1,500 people attended the show. Pretty impressive when census records tell us the entire city of Tucson only had 55,000 residents in 1950. Mr. Caudle even quoted one his initial naysayer’s by name, he says quote, “Sid Wolfson, one of the Board members came up to me and said, ‘I wish to apologize for my attitude… Tucson can have a mineral show, and considering everything, a pretty good one at that.’” End quote. Uh yeah, you bet Tucson can. Thanks, Dan Caudle. He got to enjoy many, many more shows, he lived until 2018, well into his 90s.

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So, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show blends together the hobby enthusiast, the public and the professionals together for discovery and discussion. But the show is the center jewel of a larger crown- there’s a larger event taking place around the show called the Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase. The showcase basically absorbs and transforms the entire city of Tucson, with on average 48 different showcase locations hosting events with 4,000 exhibiters all around the city. The showcase is a whopping three weeks long but the Gem and Mineral SHOW is compressed into three days and that’s the undisputed main event. About 65,000 people buy a $13 per day admission ticket- though kids 14 years and under are free with a paying adult- you know how I said Dan Caudle was a rockhound? Well, young kids that are enthusiastic about the gems and minerals, they’re called “pebble pups” which I think is adorable haha- anyway, people buy their tickets and head into the one hundred and eighty-one thousand square feet of the Tucson Convention Center. There they meet thousands of vendors buying and selling anything and everything gem, mineral, crystal or fossil related.

The fact that the show is indeed really going on this year is exciting- it was cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic. Because the show happens in February, the gem show did get to happen in 2020, squeaking onto the calendar just before, you know, the world shut down in March. But it was cancelled in 2021, for concern of being a super spreader event. But it is back on the calendar this year for 2022 and full of optimism.

Peter Megaw, the co-chair of the show doesn’t seem too fazed about COVID and it’s variants, January 10th he gave an interview to KOLD news, a local Tucson news station about the show moving forward this year. “We encourage people to come out and enjoy our exhibits, have a great time,” Peter said. He also expects this year’s show attendance to be at about 80% of normal levels due to travel restrictions. Peter goes on to say, quote, “Our international guests and visitors can’t come, but we expect to recoup a significant amount of the impact in the course of the show this year,” end quote. And by impact he means- while yes, the face-to-face marketing and connecting is fantastic, you can’t ignore the financials. The show generates about $130 million each year, about $40 million in hotel and lodgings alone. This show isn’t just for one afternoon, it’s three full days, not counting the weeks of the showcase, many vendors, dealers and shoppers come days early and stay days late to do more business, the type of handshake, cash only, wholesale price agreements that are impossible over the internet. And there really is no substitute to getting to put your own hands and eyes on the merchandise before buying. My grandmother would often fondly say the phrase, “make hay while the sun shines.” And Tucson is sunny. Do as much business as possible while everyone is together.

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But it isn’t just all in-person business transactions. A big feature of the show is the wow factor. Traveling museum quality exhibits for everyone to gaze at. Treats for the gem and mineral lovers and trying to get new people hooked on the beauty of geology. In 1957, the centerpiece of the third annual gem show was from a Mrs. Emma Clark from Redlands, California. She brought an entire dinner… a full meal, where each item was a rock or mineral she had carved and polished into masquerading as a pot roast, mashed potatoes, slices of ham, peas, loaves of bread and a dessert of apple pie and chocolate cake. 1960 is when the Smithsonian started getting involved, thanks to society members sending a written invitation to the assistant curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s mineral collection. The curator did come to the show, and he crashed in the guest room of a society member to avoid the packed hotels.

With the prestige and resources of the Smithsonian, the gem show has been treated to visiting exhibits of priceless treasures like the Logan sapphire, a 423 carat purest, darkest blue sapphire brooch framed by 20 round cut white diamonds. Also, Faberge eggs from the Russian empire have made appearances and the Star of Asia, a 330-carat cabochon cut star sapphire, one of the largest of its kind ever found graced the show. One of my favorite displays is from a half a million-dollar necklace called the “Great Chrysanthemum Brown” which is a 104-carat light brown diamond surrounded by 410 other stones making an organic, leaflike chain of sparkle, all set in platinum. In recent years, the show has featured massive, beautiful specimens of huge geodes of amethyst, so large a full-grown man could climb inside and have room to spare. A three-foot tower of pinky raspberry rubellite that looks like dripping celestial frosting is on display back lit, so it seems to glow from within. A set of miniature musical horns, trombones, French horns, tubas, all carved from materials like tiger’s eye and rose quartz, suspended on delicate gold frame stands, each just a few inches in size. Bins and bins and bins of stunning gemstone beads, carved in every shape and texture you can imagine. On the opposite side of tiny… you can be confronted with a fully assembled fossil skeleton of a triceratops posed in a defensive crouch; frilled head lowered.

As much as I would love to be a big-time buyer strolling each aisle, stocking up my wares, the fact is I am not the person who walks into the gem show with wads of cash. I would be there to ooo and ahh and admire and learn. It is a dream of mine to go to the show. Unfortunately for me, my life just now isn’t set up so that I can jet off to Tucson for three days in a fantasy gem land, though oh how I wish it was. As it stands, I am going to be glued to my phone February 10 through the 13, following all the hashtags on Instagram and living vicariously through everyone there. That is one of the blessings of social media, I can go sit in on a live stream of someone walking the booths or looking at an exhibit from my couch in my living room while my four-year-old takes a nap.

This year’s show has the theme “The Show that Glows,” boasting there will be over 80 exhibits in the Fluorescent Mineral Pavilion, featuring the apatite supergroup. Apatite is a quirky little mineral that looks as if it has been magically watercolor ty-dyed with blues, purples and greens. I love the harkening to history for this year’s theme, the gem show’s founded, Dan Caudle, fluorescent minerals were known to be his very favorite rocks.

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Guys, if you’re going to Tucson this year- please send me all your pictures, tag me in every Instagram Story- all the images and videos from this show are going to mentally and emotionally sustain me for weeks, probably months to come. I cannot wait to see what everyone is bringing- especially since the show was cancelled last year… it’s been a drought, two years have gone bye since the gem and mineral world got to gather and socialize, buy, sell and yeah- show off. A lot of pent-up sparkle, haha

That's all for this episode of Tea and Gemstones. Follow me on Instagram, at Tea & Gemstones, I’ll be reposting and sharing all the amazing stuff going on at the show. Please check out our show notes for a link to Tea and Gemstone’s website, which has complete transcript of every episode, along with the bibliography. Music has been by Joseph McDade and Audionautix. As always, I have been your host, Jen. It has been a pleasure hanging out with you. Until next time, Stay Sparkly.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ramirez, Jasmine. “Tucson Gem and Mineral Show Back on for 2022.” Https://Www.Kold.Com, 10 Jan. 2022, www.kold.com/2022/01/10/tucson-gem-mineral-show-back-2022.

Schannep, Dwight. “Tucson Gem Show Story.” Tucson Turquoise | Bisbee Turquoise, 23 Nov. 2019, tucsonturquoise.com/tucson-gem-show-story/#:%7E:text=Tucson%20Gem%20and%20Mineral%20Show%20founder%20Dan%20Caudle%20%7C%20Tucson%20Turquoise.

“Show.” Tucson Gem & Mineral Society, www.tgms.org/show. Accessed 20 Jan. 2022.

Tammy-Honaman. “How the Tucson Shows Got Their Start.” Interweave, 13 Jan. 2022, www.interweave.com/article/jewelry/tucson-shows-got-start-history.

Tucson Convention Center. “Tucson Gem and Mineral Show®.” Tucson Convention Center, tucsonconventioncenter.com/events/tgms-2022. Accessed 20 Jan. 2022.

Episode 12: Lapis Lazuli

Hello, hello everyone. Hi, I’m glad you’re here. This is “Tea & Gemstones,” your podcast home for talking about anything and everything to do with jewelry, gemstones, and precious metals. We talk history, fashion, science, and culture, diving into all the little details because I believe that’s where a lot of the beauty and the joy is. Oh, I should introduce me, I am your host, Jen, a lifelong sparkle enthusiast who really enjoys digging up all those details for you. I love to take you along on these auditory outings. I hope you have fun, I hope you learn, I hope this is an enjoyable escape from everyday life for you. So, let’s hang out for a little bit.

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Today I want to talk about a gemstone that combines the deepest richest blue hue with silver, gold and white, all in one luscious stone. It’s one of my personal favorite gemstones with a name that is just such fun to say… ‘lapis lazuli.’ To me it sounds like the name of an exotic princess. But the exotic sounding moniker breaks down like so… ‘lapis’ is the Latin word for ‘stone’, and lazuli is derived from the Persian word ‘lazhward’ which means…. ‘blue sky’ or sometimes it’s translated as ‘heaven’. So, lapis lazuli is the blue stone of the sky, or stone of the heavens, which is romantic and lovely… in my personal opinion haha. Lots of times lapis lazuli is just referred to as ‘lapis’, because while the name is an lovely alliteration, it’s also a mouthful. Lapis is one of the oldest gemstones… I mean, all gemstones are pretty old, being made millions of years ago and all… but it terms of human discovery, lapis lazuli is one of the OGs. In the Bible, there are many references to ‘sapphire’… however, that’s a gemstone that was unknown in that part of the world at that time, so scholars really think the writers are referencing lapis. As early as the 7th millennium BC lapis was being mined in northeast Afghanistan. Afghanistan has always been far and away the biggest producer of lapis, though small amounts have been found in Russia, Chile, Pakistan, and a few other places. But the specimens from Afghanistan are renowned for their beautiful deep color and high quality.

Lapis is considered an opaque gemstone. Side note, there are three categories of gemstone clarity or opacity- transparent, translucent and opaque. Clear stones you can easily see through, or more specifically, that light can shine through, are like diamond, topaz or amethyst- those are transparent. The middle category is called translucent and that means you can …sort of see through it, but it’s cloudy and sort of… foggy. Examples of translucent are like rose quartz and moonstone. Then the opaque category- stones that you cannot see through at all. These are stones like onyx, turquoise and lovely lapis lazuli.

Lapis has been beloved for over 6500 years, ever since it was first discovered forming amongst limestone and marble. And it’s not hard to see why- lapis’ color is extraordinary. Think about it… true blue colors don’t occur very commonly in nature and lapis’ mineral combination of deep blue lazurite, cloudy white calcite, and sparkly pyrite lends the stone its celestial deep blue hue scattered with silver and gold; it’s like a night sky full of stars captured and frozen in a stone you can hold in your hand.

It has been established in previous podcast episodes how much I adore shape psychology, but I think color psychology is equally cool. And I think color psychology has also played a factor in lapis being so adored. Blue is frequently given as the answer to “what’s your favorite color?” It makes you feel peaceful, tranquil… picture a wide blue ocean or an open blue sky over mountains or a meadow. Blue also harkens to loyalty and strength. Those are great qualities to elicit from a gemstone. While colors like orange or lime green can be more polarizing, blue is pretty universally liked. And everyone did like lapis- we know this because the ancient cultures used lapis to craft ornaments and objects they valued the most… meaning they were buried with their lapis items to take with them to the eternal afterlife. The most famous example of this is King Tut’s solid gold death mask. It’s one of the most iconic pieces of art in the world and this 22lb gold masterpiece is inlaid with lapis lazuli around the eyes and eyebrows. Ancient Egyptians actually believed their sun god, Ra, had a body made of yellow gold and lapis. The lapis around King Tut’s mask’s eyes wasn’t just an artistic choice, the ancient Egyptians believed lapis could ward off evil from coming into their soul through their eyes- they would crush lapis into a powder and wear it around their eyes. Queen Cleopatra famously always wore vivid blue lapis eyeshadow. So, the lapis eye decoration on the mask was to give King Tut the protection of the blue gemstone for all eternity.

While the Ancient Egyptians believed crushed lapis lazuli could protect their soul… there’s another nice quality to come from turning lapis stones into powder… it becomes a gorgeous pigment to make paint. Our first known use of lapis as a paint is on 6th and 7th century AD cave paintings in Afghanistan, which makes perfect sense- because that’s where lapis is found in abundance. When lapis lazuli is crushed into a fine powder and used as paint, it’s called by a new name, ‘ultramarine.’ Besides the first cave paintings, we see ultramarine used in China and Indian starting in the 10th and 11th centuries… but the most famous uses of this rare and expensive color came from the Renaissance era. It was the most expensive blue pigment and was considered to symbolized holiness and humility, so it was used a lot for robes for like the Virgin Mary or Jesus. 15th century Italian painter Cennino Cennini wrote in his painter’s handbook, “ultramarine blue is a glorious, lovely and absolutely perfect pigment beyond all pigments.” Ultramarine was considered the most difficult pigment to grind and there’s al sort of documentation of artists comparing notes and experimenting to try and get the highest quality blue for their work. There are many beautiful examples of paintings featuring ultramarine, but the most recognizable one I thought I could mention- since I can’t actually show you a photo with my voice… is the famous painting, “Girl With A Pearl Earring”. You know her vivid blue headwrap? That’s ultramarine paint from lapis lazuli.

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In 1826 a synthetic version of the ultramarine pigment was created, which greatly reduced the rarity and value of natural lapis for artists. I understand the economics of the need to create the synthetic ultramarine but it is still makes me a little wistful to look back through history and see lapis sort of… fall, I suppose? I feel like I can’t commit to saying, ‘oh, lapis lazuli fell from grace,’ that seems so harsh. But for hundreds of years lapis was so prized that an ounce of high-quality lapis lazuli cost about the same as an ounce of gold and it was held in high esteem by royalty, Queen Catherine the Great of Russia notably decorated an entire room in her palace all in lapis, including the walls, fireplaces, doors, and a huge mirror frame. Nowadays in our modern world lapis lazuli is considered a ‘semi-precious’ gemstone. Here’s a point of comparison… in 2020 an ounce of premium grade lapis can cost about $160. An ounce is gold is about $1700. But the while the price tag has fluctuated, the beauty of lapis holds steady and true and it is still featured abundantly in jewelry. A quick browse of the internet yields beaded bracelets from David Yurman, dangling earrings from Anna Beck, pendants from John Hardy and Kendra Scott, and cuff links from Gucci, all featuring lapis. If you feel like a bit of a lapis splurge, Rolex offers solid lapis dials on several of their watches such as the Datejust, Daytona and Submariner. Lapis lends a unique aspect of individualization to a piece; because with it’s gold, silver and white flecks and streaks, no two slices of stone are the same. For it’s reasonable wholesale price point and versatility for carving and shaping lapis is also a much loved and used stone for indie designers. I did a search on Etsy for just simply lapis lazuli turned up over 178 thousand results. That quantity might be in part to the success of synthetic lapis and straight up faked lapis. In 1974, a man named Pierre Gilson Sr of France revealed he had actually created processes for three lab-grown gems, opal, turquoise and lapis lazuli. His opal recipe is the most famous due to the high quality of the stones he grows for about 18 months, layer by layer in his laboratory. However, Gilson lapis stones are really considered as “imitation” or “simulant” rather than exact clones because Gilson’s creation has some differing ingredients and physical properties from natural lapis even though it looks very similar. Though for most consumers buying a piece of jewelry for the bright blue color, it can pass as real. The straight up fakes of lapis happen because everyone wants the dark, rich, velvety blue color… so there is a high incentive to get that color. Sometimes someone takes a piece of poorly pale colored lapis and dyes it darker. Or sometimes more affordable stones like howlite or jasper are dyed blue to pass as lapis. But one of the easiest ways to test if a lapis is dyed is to wipe it gently with a cloth or paper towel with acetone or alcohol… if it’s dyed, the dye will rub off the stone.

Unless you’re testing your lapis, you really don’t want to put it in contact with chemicals… lapis is a porous stone, meaning it has tiny, tiny open spaces within the stone. Other porous gemstones are like pearl, opal or amber. They need to be treated with a little more care than like a diamond or ruby. The Mohs scale is a scale to mark how hard a gemstone is, with a diamond at a 10 and a soft pearl at 2.5. Lapis Lazuli is about a 5.5, meaning it’s perfectly safe in like earrings or a necklace, but needs some tenderness when in a ring or a bracelet. One nice quality of lapis is that even if it gets worn down or dull, it lends itself easily to being repolished and rejuvenated.

Other little fun facts… lapis is not a traditional birthstone, it’s not assigned to any particular month. Though it is associated with the zodiac sign for Sagittarius. I didn’t really know that zodiac signs had gemstones assigned to them, I may have to dive a little deeper into that topic another day. One of the largest gem quality specimens of lapis is right here in the United States, in the Smithsonian National Gem Collection. It is a free form piece of lapis weighing over 165 pounds called the Blue Flame. It was donated to the museum in 2015 and now anyone can go and see it and marvel at the scale of the celestial silver and gold swirls frozen in the deep blue rock.

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I think if you asked someone “name a blue gemstone” they would most likely instantly say “sapphire.” And that’s accurate and expected… though sapphire do in fact come vibrantly in every single color of the rainbow and a couple extra hues too… they are without a doubt the king of blue. If you press someone, “come on, what’s another blue gem?” Maybe they’ll mention turquoise, topaz, maybe diamond. I’m not sure how far down the list I’d have to probe before someone mentions lapis lazuli. Haha, and I just cannot abide that, more people need to know about this gemstone. It was once so, so revered, so important and valued. And now… it’s almost like, forgotten. When I first set out to write a feature on lapis, I was more thinking about the history aspect and its unique appearance, but as I put together this episode, I realized I more just wanted to get the word out, “hey- look at this amazing stone, did you know it existed?” So… tell your friends, haha share this episode. Maybe start shopping around for your own beautiful ‘something blue’ for no special occasion at all except to treat yourself. And maybe consider bringing some lapis into your life.

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That’s all for this episode of Tea and Gemstones. I hope you had fun hearing me hype up lapis lazuli, the beautiful ancient blue gemstone you might not have known about before today. Headed over to Tea and Gemstones on Instagram and leave a comment on the show’s grid post to let me know what you liked or didn’t like… I can take it, I promise… about this week’s episode. And please feel free to message me and tell me if you have an idea for a future episode. Check out our show notes for a link to our website- all the transcripts for every episode are there, as well as the bibliography. Our theme song is by Joseph McDade, additional music by Audioauti. And I, Jen, have been your enthusiastic host. Alright everyone, until next time… Stay Sparkly.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

“About Lapis Lazuli.” Rock Your World, 2022, www.rockyourworldgems.com/pages/about-lapis-lazuli.

Broecke, Lara. Cennino Cennini’s Il Libro Dell’Arte: A New English Language Translation and Commentary and Italian Transcription. Bilingual, Archetype Books, 2015.

Cherry, Kendra. “How the Color Blue Impacts Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors.” Verywell Mind, 22 Feb. 2020, www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-blue-2795815.

“Meaning of Transparent, Translucent and Opaque Gemstones.” Kalikasan Jewel, kalikasanjewel.com/meaning-transparent-translucent-opaque-gemstones. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.

Morris, Roderick Conway. “Lapis Lazuli and the History of ‘the Most Perfect’ Color.” The New York Times, 18 Aug. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/arts/international/lapis-lazuli-and-the-history-of-the-most-perfect-color.html.

Wikipedia contributors. “Mask of Tutankhamun.” Wikipedia, 16 Dec. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask_of_Tutankhamun.