I just remembered the crystal museum that I and my mother visited a year ago. It was so interesting. We learned that there are only two pieces of emeralds that are this big (one in Munich one in Russia) that haven’t been used for making jewels (at least that is how I understood it). This piece is in Munich thanks to Mr. Leuchtenberg that was married to the Russian empress. He was collecting gemstones and minerals and thanks to his wife he was the first to explore the mines in Russia when opened. Mr. Leuchtenberg had a great collection in Munich. In second world war the workers at his museum/collection suspected that the collection would be destroyed and stories are told that they were coming at work with lunchboxes and going home with gemstones/ minerals from the collection. Unfortunately, the workers were right. The collection got bombed and 60-70% of the collection was ruined. Thanks to the workers bringing the pieces home around 150 000 pieces got rescued. Here are the most impressive and beautiful pieces. I was fascinated by the gold (of course) but also of the stones that changed colors when illuminated with UV-light.
Sjetih se muzej kristala i minerala kojeg smo posjetile ja i mama prije nekih godinu dana. Bio jako zanimljiv. Saznale smo da na svijetu ima samo dva eksemplara ovog velikog smaragda koji nisu iskoristili da bi napravili nakit. Jedan je u Rusiji a drugi je zahvaljujuci gosp. Leuchtenberger u Minhenhu ( na slici). Gosp. Leuchtenberger je bio oženjen ruskom caricom i samim tim je prvi imao dostup rudama koje su bile otvarane. Sakupljao je dragocjeno kamenje i minerale i svoju kolekciju je u Minhenu držao. Kuratori koji su radili u njegovom muzeju su shvatili da je pitanje samo vremena prije nego sto počnu bombardirati tu dragocjenu kolekciju. Kuratori su ispričali kako su ujutro dolazili sa ruckom u tasni a navečer sa dragocijenim kamenjem te mineralima isli kuci. Kuratori su (na zalost) bili u pravu. Bombardovanjem uništeno je između 60-70% kolekcije. Kuratori su uspjeli spasiti oko 150 000 primjeraka kroz to sto su nosili kuci dijelove kolekcije. Ovo su (meni) najljepši eksemplari. Fascinirana sam bila sa zlatom (naravno) ali pogotovo sa kamenjem koje posvijeljeno uv/iv crvenim svijetlom pa svijetu skroz drugom bojom.