Rose of Itatiaia

Tourmaline, a gemstone that comes in a wide variety of colours, is a crystalline mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, lithium, magnesium, potassium or sodium. The “Rose of Itatiaia”, a 35 x 12 cm rubellite tourmaline crystal on white cleavelandite crystals, the world’s finest of its kind in a public collection, received its name from its place of origin, the Itatiaia hillside in the Minas Gerais State of Brazil. It was found in 1979 in the spectacular Jonas mine, the most important rubellite discovery site of Brazil, where it was hanging upside down from the ceiling of a geode-like pocket. A year later, it was bought by Keith Proctor, a mineral and gem collector from Denver, Colorado, and became the signature piece of his world-class collection. In 1985, Proctor displayed ""the Rose"" at the Munich Show, Europe’s largest mineral exhibition, where it won the prestigious Viktor Goldschmidt Prize. In Munich, H.E. the late Sheikh Saud bin Muhammad Al Thani acquired the tourmaline and thus brought one of the most beautiful minerals in existence to Qatar.