Impressive, large lapis lazuli object in an incredible color

A 100 cm long lapis lazuli object from the classic Sar-e-Sang Valley in Badakhshan, with a particularly deep, evenly distributed ultramarine coloration. The golden pyrite specks are finely distributed over the entire surface, classic premium-grade markers.

Mineralogically, lapis lazuli is a rock whose main component is lazurite. The intense blueness comes from sulfur anion groups in the sodalite aluminosilicate lattice, a unique phenomenon in the history of inorganic pigments that Renaissance painters exploited as ultramarine pigment.

The Sar-e-Sang deposit in the Hindu Kush has been mined for over 6,000 years. Sumerian, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian cultures already traded lapis from this exact mine. The oldest pieces in European museums can be isotopically assigned to this deposit.

The size of one meter in length is remarkable for a contiguous piece of lapis: typically, the material is broken into smaller blocks. An object of this dimension requires careful recovery and transport and is rarely available in the international collector's trade.

A collector's item of museum dimension with 6,000 years of cultural history.