History of Science & Technology, Including the World of Richard Feynman, and Natural History
History of Science & Technology, Including the World of Richard Feynman, and Natural History
Afghanistan
Lot Closed
December 13, 08:20 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 9,000 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.