By Megan Reynolds, AJP (GIA)
The Wittelsbach-Graff is a stone that has a truly royal history, with a big twist at the end. Various accounts have the Wittelsbach diamond first appearing when it was given, by Phillip IV of Spain to his daughter, Margareta Teresa as a part of her dowry in 1664. When she tragically died at the age of 21, her jewels went to her husband, Emperor Leopold I of Austria. Leopold’s third wife Eleanor outlived him and therefore inherited the blue diamond, which she bequeathed to her granddaughter, the Archduchess Maria Amalia. Maria Amalia married the Bavarian crown prince, Charles Albert in 1722 and from then on, the diamond became the family diamond of the House of Wittelsbach. In 1806, Maximilian IV Joseph von Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria and had the diamond set on top of the Royal Crown where it stayed until 1918 when Bavaria became a republic.
In 1918, Bavaria became a republic and its final royal outing was to Ludwig III of Bavaria’s funeral marking the final time that the Wittelsbach diamond would accompany the King to his final resting place. After Bavaria became a republic the Wittelsbach family fell on hard times and in 1931 they tried to sell the stone in 1931 but when the hammer came down at Christie’s in London, no one knew who had won the famous blue stone. After that point, the Wittelsbach disappeared. No one knows for sure who owned it, but various accounts place a large blue diamond appearing at the Brussels world exhibition, though none knew it to be the famous Wittelsbach. It wasn’t until the 1960’s, when the Goldmuntz family asked jeweler Joseph Komkommer to re-cut an old mine cut diamond, that the Wittelsbach was found. Recognizing the history behind such a famous stone, Komkommer refused to touch it, and instead got together with other diamond dealers and jewelers to purchase the Wittelsbach. It then remained safe in a private collection until 2008 when it again came up for auction. The winner? Famed London based jeweler, Lawrence Graff, for $23.4 million dollars.
Graff then shocked the diamond community with his next move. He stated that he planned to re-cut the famous Wittelsbach “to remove damage to the girdle and enhance the color”. And in early 2010 the diamond was re-cut, going from 35.56 carats to 31.06 carats losing 4.45 carats in the process. The color and clarity were also improved from Fancy Deep Grayish Blue VS2, to Fancy Deep Blue IF. But what cost did this have for the famous blue diamond. Many in the industry felt that he had committed a crime against the Wittelsbach, which after the cutting was renamed the Wittelsbach-Graff. Hans Ottomeyer, Director of Berlin’s German Historical Museum was quoted as saying that the remodel was like “buying a Rembrandt and repainting it”. Graff quickly fired back saying that, “if you discovered a Leonardo da Vinci with a tear in it and covered in mud, you would want to repair it”. “We have similarly cleaned up the diamond and repaired damage caused over the years.” But that’s the tricky part. Graff’s detractors would claim that the “damage” was an integral part of the stone, displaying its history in a very real and physical manner. They feel that the Wittelsbach, and its royal history, are no more. Yes, the stone has technically been improved, but an improvement to whom? Only time will tell.
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