Star of NZ gem’s secret revealed
Diamonds are forever — but diamond mysteries are, eventually, solved.
For 15 years, the whereabouts of New Zealand’s first $1 million diamond was a closely guarded secret. This week, a South Island businessman finally confessed to its purchase, allowing the Weekend Herald to photograph the gem for the first time since its 2006 headline-making arrival.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirmed he bought the diamond as a gift for his wife — but she won’t wear it, because the stone is so big.
“It just looks too big. You’d think it was a fake.”
Dubbed the Star of New Zealand, the 52-carat raw stone was mined in South Africa and cut in Israel.
The mystery buyer — who collects precious jewels — said he had just returned from an overseas trip, when a friend alerted him to the sale.
A phone call. A bank transfer. And, for the past decade and a half, the diamond has been “well-stored in a secure vault”. Purchased in a temporary setting, it has since been fitted into a platinum ring — worn, for these photographs, by a worker at the hotel where the businessman agreed to meet the Weekend Herald.
Afterwards, the photographer described the stone as “so big it could have come from a Princess Barbie dress-up box”.