Wrangling over a half-ton gem - July 30, 2008
It weights 536 kilos and Madagascar wants it back.
A giant, uncut emerald on display in Hong Kong was actually illegally exported from Madagascar, according to officials from that country. “We need the stone back ... It’s a treasure of Madagascar,” says Luc Herve Rakotoarimanana (AP).
Madagascar thinks the gem was illegally exported as ‘green jade’ and shipped to Hong Kong through the French colony Reunion Island (HK Finance Standard). “(The stone) has been extracted from Madagascar with an exploitation license authorized only for beryl and not for the emerald,” says a statement (AP).
A spokeswoman for the gallery displaying the stone, BaoQu Tang Modern Art Gallery, says the emerald belongs to a French company called Orgaco and that this company had already seen off a legal challenge on Reunion.
My pickier colleagues require me to point out this is an emerald conglomerate, and not an individual gemstone.
