The Olympic had been among the stones that John Altmann and partner Rudi Cherny acquired in 1956, according to Altmann’s company. The auction house said the stone was discovered in the same field in Australia as the opal known as the “Olympic Australis,” which weighs 17,000 carats and is on permanent display in Altmann’s shop. “I with 100% certainty know that their provenance information is 100% accurate” because it lines up with information she has, she said.
But she said she started digging and discovered “something with my grandfather’s handwriting with the picture of the opal with the word ‘Americus Australis.’” As part of his research, he contacted Fiona Altmann, granddaughter of John Altmann and general manager of Altmann + Cherny in Sydney, Australia.Īltmann said her grandfather, in his business dealings, made regular trips to Europe and the U.S.Īltmann said when Cline emailed her, she was skeptical the name of the stone, in particular, threw her. Nick Cline, a partner and appraisal specialist with Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals, said the family has documentation surrounding the provenance of the opal. He said he went with Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals because he thought it would get more attention from the newer company than a larger auction house. Von Brandt said he brought it with him to Alaska over a year ago as he weighed the best approach to a possible sale. Guy von Brandt eventually moved to Oregon and kept the stone “kind of tucked away” for many years, von Brandt said. His father then branched out into furniture and displayed it at his shop. The family, with roots in California, exhibited the stone at gem shows for years, until the early 1980s, he said. “He entrusted me to figure out which direction we wanted to go to part with the stone,” von Brandt told The Associated Press. Von Brandt said the opal for decades was in the care of his father, Guy von Brandt, who decided it had been “locked up long enough, that it’s time to put it back out in the world and see what interest it can generate.”
Von Brandt said the stone has been in his family since the late 1950s, when his grandfather bought it from an Australian opal dealer named John Altmann. The opal is larger than a brick and is broken into two pieces, which von Brandt said was a practice used decades ago to prove gem quality. Most recently, it was kept in a linen closet in a home in Big Lake, north of Anchorage, by Fred von Brandt, who mines for gold in Alaska and whose family has deep roots in the gem and rock business. The opal, dubbed the “Americus Australis,” weighs more than 11,800 carats, according to the auction house Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals. JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A gemstone, billed as one of the largest gem-quality opals in existence, was sold for $143,750 at auction in Alaska on Sunday.
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