Natural History

Natural History

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 69. Lapis Lazuli Free-Form Monolith.

Lapis Lazuli Free-Form Monolith

Afghanistan

Auction Closed

July 26, 08:15 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 10,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Lapis Lazuli Free-Form Monolith

Afghanistan


14½ x 10¾ x 5¾ inches (36.8 x 27.3 x 14.6 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.