Natural History
Natural History
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.