A set of nearly 30 large gems from the Smithsonian will be on display at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science starting Friday, September 9 and lasting through mid-January.
The exhibit is called “Gigantic Gems of the Smithsonian” and features some of the largest-cut gems in the world, with one topaz weight in at around 23,000 carats.
“[These are] thousands of carats,” Mark Pospisil of the Perot Museum said. “Normally when you look at a stone on a ring or something, if you’re lucky, it’s five carats.”
The exhibit marks the first time such a large collection of the Smithsonian’s gems will be on display outside of the famed Washington museum.
Some of the featured gems have never been on display at all — not even at the Smithsonian.
“There are a lot of people around here that won’t be able to make it up to [the Smithsonian],” Smithsonian’s Russel Feather said. “Now, they can come [to the Perot Museum] and at least see a little bit of what we have.”
For more information, visit the Perot Museum’s website.