The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History will put the “Lion of Merelani,” which is one of the most finely detailed colored gemstones in the world, on public view starting Thursday.
The Smithsonian said the glowing green gem is a “tsavorite” — a rare garnet which is found in a region near the border of Kenya and Tanzania. In 2017, the tsavorite of over 283 carats was discovered near Merelani in northern Tanzania, which has a reputation for its gem mines.
The rough stone was made into the “Lion of Merelani” by gem cutter Victor Tuzlukov in 2018.
“This tsavorite is truly one of the most important colored gemstones to have been mined this decade,” Jeffrey Post, the museum’s curator-in-charge of gems and minerals, said in a news release. “A gem like this is one of Earth’s natural treasures and is an exciting addition to the National Gem Collection and to our public exhibition.”
The Lion of Merelani weighs 116.76 carats, which is over 100 carats bigger than the National Gem Collection’s current largest tsavorite jewel, the Smithsonian said.
This gem is the largest precision-cut tsavorite in the world and the largest tsavorite gem, the Smithsonian said. It was a gift from a privately owned gem and jewelry collection called Somewhere in the Rainbow to the National Gem Collection.
The Smithsonian said that the Lion of Merelani will join a number of the National Gem Collection’s sparkling treasures in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals.
“We are confident that this great tsavorite will quickly become a visitor favorite, for its beauty and its well-documented story,” Post said. “It will be the iconic garnet in the National Gem Collection, the one that all other tsavorites will be compared to in the future.”
