Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is a 31.06 carat Fancy Deep Blue diamond attributed to the Kollur Mine in India. Before its 2010 recut it weighed 35.56 carats, graded Fancy Deep grayish blue with VS2 clarity. The stone is in a private collection.

A story that King Philip IV of Spain gave the diamond to his daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa, in 1664 is widely repeated but considered apocryphal. Documented possession runs through the Habsburg family, and the stone came to Munich in 1722 through the marriage of Archduchess Maria Amalia. It was set in the Bavarian royal crown from 1806 to 1918, last seen in public at King Ludwig III's funeral in 1921, and resurfaced in Belgium in 1951.

On December 10, 2008, Christie's London sold the diamond to jeweler Laurence Graff for 16.4 million pounds, reported at US$23.4 to 24.3 million, then a world auction record for any diamond. Graff had the stone recut in 2010, removing about 4.5 carats and raising the grade to Fancy Deep Blue, Internally Flawless. Critics said the recut erased part of the stone's history, with cutter Gabriel Tolkowsky calling it "the end of culture," while Graff said the repolish brought out the stone's full potential. The diamond was displayed beside the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 2010, and a 2011 sale to Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar for at least US$80 million was reported but never confirmed.