Natural History

Natural History

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 68. Lapis Lazuli Free-Form Tower.

Lapis Lazuli Free-Form Tower

Afghanistan

Auction Closed

July 26, 08:15 PM GMT

Estimate

12,000 - 18,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Lapis Lazuli Free-Form Tower

Afghanistan


19 x 11 x 5½ inches (48.3 x 27.9 x 14.0 cm). 71 pounds (32.2 kg).

Polished on all sides, this massive free-form monolith comes from the mines of Afghanistan, where lapis lazuli — the "stone the color of the sky" — has been mined for millennia. Containing the minerals lazurite, calcite, and pyrite, lapis lazuli features prominently in, among other artifacts, the funerary mask of Tutankhamun and — as the pigment ultramarine — in the paintings of Renaissance artists such as Botticelli, Titian, Raphael, and Rubens, among many others.

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