Next month, Sotheby's will auction a 400-year-old diamond
that is estimated to be worth between $2 million and $4 million. The
"Beau Sancy" is one of the world's oldest known diamonds and weighs
34.98 carats.
The diamond will be on public display in Paris, London and Zurich until it goes up for auction in Geneva on May 14.
The Beau Sancy once belonged to France's Queen Marie de Medici and was
originally cut from a gem mine in the Indian city of Golconda. It was
owned by the last Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II, before being acquired
by a private European owner.
Diamond website overabillion.com
says the Beau Sancy gets its name from 16th century French financier
and diplomat Nicholas Harlay de Sancy. The gem is described as a
"perfect, colorless, rounded pear-shaped diamond."