Fake Gems Found In Czech National Museum

The famous gem collection in Prague recently faced some controversy, when several of the diamonds and precious stones, presumably all assumed to be worth millions of dollars, turned out to be fakes. This news was uncovered during a routine audit of the museum. The precious stones that turned out to be fake included a 5 carat diamond, which was discovered to be simply glass, a 19 carat sapphire, which turned out to be synthetic, and at least half of the rubies, according to www.thediamondloupe.com. Sitting atop of Wenceslas Square, the main building of The Czech National Museum has been closed for the past 7 years due to refurbishment, and is said to be opening back up in October of 2018, right in time for Czechoslovakia's 100th birthday.

There are 5,000 precious stones housed in the Czech National Museum, and so far, only 400 of the stones have been investigated for their validity. According to Ivo Macek, the head of the precious stones department at The Czech National Museum, “What we have here is still a sapphire, but it is not a natural stone as was documented when the museum gained it for it’s collection in the 1970’s, so it was artificially created, so it does not have the value we thought it did. It was once acquired for 200 thousand crowns, but today it would have been worth tens of millions of dollars. And what we thought to be a 5 carat diamond, was in fact, plain glass given a diamond cutting”.

Due to this discerning news, the full audit of the museum will now take until 2020 to be fully complete. And, the audit will now check the authenticity of all of the musical instruments, paintings, and precious metals housed in the museum, as well as all of the precious stones and gems

image: http://www.praguego.com