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Smithsonian Gets its First Piece of Citrine Jewelry
It came from none other than actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie Pitt, who worked with designer Robert Procop to create the piece for their “Style of Jolie” jewelry collection.
The 18-karat yellow gold necklace is from the Style of Jolie jewelry collection, the charitable collaboration between the actress and Procop, and features 64 graduated bezel-set cushion-cut citrines, with a 177.11-carat pear-shaped citrine drop.
Named the Jolie Citrine Necklace, the piece went on display Friday in the Janet Annenberg Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals, taking its place among such storied gems as the Hope diamond. It will remain there indefinitely.
Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem Collection, said the Jolie necklace is the first piece of citrine jewelry in the Smithsonian’s collection, which totals about 350,000 mineral specimens and 10,000 gems and is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It is used for scientific research, education programs and public exhibitions.
Citrine is a variety of quartz, which is one of the most abundant minerals in the Earth’s crust. In its colorless state, it is known as rock crystal but small amounts of various impurities can yield a wide range of colors in the mineral.
Citrine is the golden-yellow to orange variety, colored by traces of iron. It takes its name from the French word for lemon, citron.
Jolie Pitt, whose latest film By the Sea has her co-starring alongside husband Brad Pitt, and Procop have been creating jewelry together for a number of years. Proceeds from their Style of Jolie collection go to the Education Partnership for Children in Conflict, which builds school for children in conflict-affected areas around the world. The first few Partnership schools are in Afghanistan.
Commenting on the donation, Jolie Pitt said, “Robert and I are honored to have this great institution feature one of our jeweled creations. As the Smithsonian has educated so many of us, this jewel is a symbol of our efforts to help educate underprivileged children in conflict areas of the world.”
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