Sparkling through time

A brief history of diamond desirability

When the Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond Corp announced its find of an epic 2,492-carat stone in Botswana in late August, many geologists around the world rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

Were she around today, Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor would presumably have had a quotable reaction to that stone. Renowned for her adage of "big girls need big diamonds," her love of jewelry was legendary - and her private collection was one of the most expensive in the world, including the whopping 69-carat Taylor-Burton diamond. That's more than 60 times the average engagement ring diamond in the US today.

So why are people so drawn to diamonds? And what makes this gemstone so special? According to DW, the answer is as multifaceted as a brilliant cut diamond itself - starting with its properties, as the hardest material on earth with the highest thermal conductivity.

'Tears of the gods'

Diamonds were first discovered in India, where people thought they were created when lightning struck rock. The ancient Greeks believed they were tears of the gods or fallen splinters of stars. Prized for centuries for their brilliance and hardness, they were believed to have medicinal, even magical properties. Indian royalty wore diamonds in their uncut form in jewelry - or as protective talismans in battle.

By the early 14th century, diamonds from India were making their way to the major cities of Europe, sparking the first cutting industries in Venice and Bruges.

A diamond ring offered by Archduke Maximilian of Austria to Mary of Burgundy in 1477 is widely touted as the first diamond engagement ring. But it was Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a 17th-century French gem merchant and traveler, who effectively got Europe's elite hooked on diamonds.

Famous for his voyages to India and Persia, Tavernier brought many famous stones back to royal courts across the continent. One of his best customers was France's King Louis XIV, who couldn't get enough of his diamonds.

An obsession that, according to historian and author Aja Raden, is a combination of psychology and optics.

"We go so crazy when we see sparkles because we're literally hard-wired to look for shiny and look for sparkly. All living things that can see have been programmed to look for something shiny or sparkly because it means water… and water is life."

Slogan of the century

On the other hand, Raden added, diamonds are "the subject and object of an incredible century-long, deeply original marketing campaign that borders on a military grade psy-op."

She's referring to the iconic De Beers ad campaign that ingrained diamonds into public consciousness. Founded by British imperialist tycoon Cecil Rhodes in 1888, De Beers controlled production of most of the world's diamonds for over a century. With an abundance of diamonds from South Africa's nascent mines suddenly flooding the market, Rhodes understood the only way to increase their value was to control supply - or make them artificially scarce.

But when worldwide diamond sales slumped after the Depression of the 1930s, De Beers enlisted the Philadelphia ad agency NW Ayer & Son to whip up demand. The resulting 1948 campaign was nothing short of a coup: "A Diamond is Forever" not only equated diamonds with romance and eternal love - it pioneered product placement in Hollywood, in movies and songs, ultimately using popular culture to create a need for diamonds.

Sales of diamond engagement rings skyrocketed, and the tagline "A Diamond is Forever" is still around today. In 1999, it was named the advertising slogan of the century.

Sparkles in popular culture

Diamonds have been shining in arts, music and literature throughout the ages. The world's earliest printed book is the Diamond Sutra in the Chinese language. It dates back to 868, and diamond is used throughout as a metaphor to "cut through" delusion to find a pure truth.

In literature, diamonds inspired entirely new genres: Wilkie Collins' 1868 novel The Moonstone about a stolen Indian diamond was the blueprint for the modern detective novel.

And the synesthetic quality of diamonds in popular music - the Beatles' kaleidoscopic Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds or Rihanna's hit song Diamonds cases in point - has lost none of its allure.

Artists have exploited the dichotomy of diamonds as emblematic of both consumerist society and ultimate luxury. Andy Warhol added an edge to his 1980 Diamond Dust Shoes silk screen series with real diamond dust, while Damien Hirst's famous cast of a human skull set with 8,601 diamonds took the contradiction to extremes.

Meanwhile, diamond dust can also be found everywhere from precision drill bits to nail files to upmarket face creams - and the potential of the diamond as a next-generation semiconductor material is being actively researched.

The dark side of diamonds

But the story of diamonds isn't all sparkle, and many famous stones evoke the complicated and contentious history of colonialism - like the legendary Koh-i-Noor, still one of the highlights of the British Crown Jewels.

Originally from India, the 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond survived centuries of intrigue and conquests - before the 10-year-old Maharaja of Punjab was forced to hand it over to Queen Victoria in 1849.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, calls for its return grew louder in several countries. The decision not to include the Koh-i-Noor in Queen Consort Camilla's crown for King Charles' coronation was interpreted variously as a show of diplomatic sensitivity and an attempt to deflect such controversy.

Canadian-Indian artist and designer Reena Ahluwalia, who has reclaimed the Koh-i-Noor as a subject in her painting, says it's a conflicted symbol to this day for many Indians. "It's so much more than just a precious gem," she said. "Because it originated in India it represents both pride and a very painful reminder of the country's colonial past."

Popular culture also played a role in anchoring the dark side of diamonds in the collective imagination, as evidenced by the lasting stain of "blood diamonds." The term emerged in the 1990s to describe diamonds mined and sold to finance armed conflict, with countries like Sierra Leone and Angola emblematic of the problem.

A global outcry led to the establishment in 2003 of a global certification scheme to regulate the rough diamond trade. But when Hollywood brought the issue to the big screen with the film Blood Diamond, its graphic depiction of the diamond trade as a perpetuator of ruthless violence stuck in people's minds.