Mystery Black Diamond Called ‘The Enigma’ Goes Up For Auction

A black diamond, named “The Enigma”, is going up for auction at Sotheby’s next month. Weighing a staggering 555.55 carats, the stone’s bidding opens on 3 February and closes on 9 February.

Sotheby’s said it is the largest faceted “Fancy Black Diamond” known to ever appear at auction and was listed as the largest cut diamond in the world in the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records, according to reports.

Experts believe the black diamond, also known as a carbonado diamond, came from outer space. “They are shrouded in mystery as to the origin or formation because there’s not that many of them found on Earth,” geologist Aaron Celestian, the curator of mineral sciences at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, said.

Celestian said most carbonados are about 2.6-3.2 billion years old. “We think that they could have formed super deep within the Earth’s interior, far deeper than what we know already of diamonds. There’s hypotheses that suggest that they formed at impact sites where a large asteroid hit Earth,” Celestian said. “There’s also interstellar hypotheses that suggest that they grew in space and then later fell on the surface of Earth.” The Enigma has not been exhibited before and is expected to sell for between $4 million and $7 million. Cryptocurrency will be accepted for payment of the diamond, the auction house said.