| The Golden Eagle | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Kevin Peters / Ron Shore |
| Type | Statue |
| Dimensions | 26 cm× 10 cm(10 in× 3.9 in) |
| Owner | Forgotten Treasure Ltd |
The Golden Eagle or The Maltese Eagle is a solid gold statue of an eagle, which is thought to be the largest solid gold and diamond encrusted statue created. [1] [2] [3] [4] An appraisal by GLS GEMLAB Ltd, Abbotsford, BC puts the replacement value at $4,110,450. [5] [6] [7] The current market value is put at $6 million. [8]
The Golden Eagle was originally created as the theme for the book The World's Greatest Treasure Hunt: Quest for the Golden Eagle, a work by Ron Shore to help raise $25 million to fund research for the prevention, early detection and cure for breast cancer. [1] [2] [9] Ron Shore commissioned Canadian sculptor Kevin Peters to help create the Golden Eagle. It took more than 4000 hours to complete. [10] [11]
The statue was for sale, with a price tag of $5 million. [1] [2] [12] $1 million from the sale will be given to the breast cancer charity of the buyer's choice, $1 million will be given to the winner of The World's Greatest Treasure Hunt, while the remaining sum is to be used to promote The World's Greatest Treasure Hunt to raise additional funds for breast cancer research. [12]
Participants in The World's Greatest Treasure Hunt win "The Grand Prize", $1,000,000 in cash by solving clues hidden in the book, The World's Greatest Treasure Hunt: Quest for the Golden Eagle, written by Ron Shore. [6]
The Golden Eagle contains 18 pounds of solid gold. [3] The head is made of 18 carat white gold and encrusted with 763 diamonds; and the eyes are made of two 1.1 carat matching pear shaped diamonds. The Eagle stands watch over the Atocha Star emerald, a 12.72 carat emerald [4] valued at $3.18 million in 2013. [13] The tail feathers are 14 kt white gold; the body, rock and base are 14 kt yellow gold, and the very bottom pedestal is 10 kt yellow gold. [7]
The statue is approximately 26 by 10 cm (10 by 4 in) in dimension. [14]
According to Science World British Columbia, the Golden Eagle was designed to be "a treasure that invoked the Old World craftsmanship of the Fabergé egg". [4] The Vancouver is Awesome recognized that the design is "with a hint of Damien Hirst’s skull". [3]
On May 30, 2016 Ron Shore, who was in possession of the statue, was mugged as he walked to his car after a concert. The perpetrator reportedly fled with Mr. Shore's backpack which contained the statue inside. [15]
On December 1, 2020 an article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper reports Lloyd’s of London Insurance has denied his claim for the theft of the bird.
Mel Fisher was an American treasure hunter best known for finding the 1622 wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha in Florida waters.
The Peacock Throne was a famous jewelled throne that was the seat of the emperors of the Mughal Empire in India. It was commissioned in the early 17th century by Emperor Shah Jahan and was located in the Diwan-i-Khas in the Red Fort of Delhi. It was named after a peacock as two peacocks are shown dancing at its rear.
Nuestra Señora de Atocha was a Spanish treasure galleon and the most widely known vessel of a fleet of ships that sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622. At the time of her sinking, Nuestra Señora de Atocha was heavily laden with copper, silver, gold, tobacco, gems, and indigo from Spanish ports at Cartagena and Porto Bello in New Granada and Havana, bound for Spain. The Nuestra Señora de Atocha was named for the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha in Madrid, Spain. It was a heavily armed Spanish galleon that served as the almirante for the Spanish fleet. It would trail behind the other ships in the flota to prevent an attack from the rear.
The French Crown Jewels and Regalia comprise the crowns, orb, sceptres, diadems and jewels that were symbols of Royal or Imperial power between 752 and 1870. These were worn by many Kings and Queens of France as well as Emperor Napoleon. The set was finally broken up, with most of it sold off in 1885 by the Third Republic. The surviving French Crown Jewels, principally a set of historic crowns, diadems and parures, are mainly on display in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre, France's premier museum and former royal palace, together with the Regent Diamond, the Sancy Diamond and the 105-carat (21.0 g) Côte-de-Bretagne red spinel, carved into the form of a dragon. In addition, some gemstones and jewels are on display in the Treasury vault of the Mineralogy gallery in the National Museum of Natural History.
The Iranian National Jewels, originally the Iranian Crown Jewels, include elaborate crowns, thirty tiaras, and numerous aigrettes, a dozen bejeweled swords and shields, a number of unset precious gems, numerous plates and other dining services cast in precious metals and encrusted with gems, and several other more unusual items collected or worn by the Persian monarchs from the 16th century and on. The collection is housed at the Treasury of National Jewels, situated inside the Central Bank of Iran on Tehran's Ferdowsi Street.
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Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. For example, treasure hunters try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with market value. This industry is generally fueled by the market for antiquities. The practice of treasure-hunting can be controversial, as locations such as sunken wrecks or cultural sites may be protected by national or international law concerned with property ownership, marine salvage, sovereign or state vessels, commercial diving regulations, protection of cultural heritage and trade controls.
The Green Vault is a museum located in Dresden, Germany, which contains the largest treasure collection in Europe. The museum was founded in 1723 by Augustus the Strong of Poland and Saxony, and it features a variety of exhibits in styles from Baroque to Classicism. The Green Vault is named after the formerly malachite green painted column bases and capitals of the initial rooms. It has some claim to be the oldest museum in the world; it is older than the British Museum, opened in 1759, but the Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg, Russia was opened in 1714 and the Vatican Museums date their foundation to the public display of the newly excavated Laocoön group in 1506.
The Diamond Fund is a unique collection of gems, jewelry and natural nuggets, which are stored and exhibited in the Kremlin Armoury in Russia. The Fund was opened in 1967 and its collection dates back to the Russian Crown treasury instituted by Emperor Peter I of Russia in 1719.
Rogelio "Roger" Domingo Roxas was a former Filipino soldier who had worked as a locksmith before allegedly discovering in a cave north of Manila a hidden chamber full of gold bars and a giant golden Buddha statue – which Roxas estimated to weigh one metric ton – on a plot of state-owned land near Baguio General Hospital, in Baguio on January 24, 1971. Roxas claimed that the Buddha's head was removable and that it concealed a hollowed-out portion within the statue that contained at least two handfuls of uncut diamonds. The cache was alleged to be a portion of the legendary Yamashita treasure.
Graff is a British multinational jeweller based in London. It was founded by British jeweller Laurence Graff in 1960. A vertically integrated company, Graff operations comprise the design, manufacture and retail distribution of jewellery and watches.
Martin Katz is an American jewelry designer based in Beverly Hills, California.
Regalia of the Russian tsars are the insignia of tsars and emperors of Russia, who ruled from the 13th to the 19th century. Over the centuries, the specific items used by Tsars changed greatly; the largest such shift occurred in the 18th century, when Peter the Great reformed the state to align it more closely with Western European monarchies.
The Atocha Star is a 400-year-old emerald, weighing more than 25.87 carats (5.174 g) before being cut to 12.72 carats (2.544 g). The emerald is estimated to be worth between $3.2 and $5 million (USD). It was part of the treasure on board the ship Nuestra Señora de Atocha, also referred to as the Atocha. The Atocha was the largest Spanish treasure galleon in a fleet of twenty-eight ships bound for Spain which sank along with seven others in a hurricane on September 6, 1622. It sank with the Atocha Star emerald, the highest graded emerald of all Atocha Emeralds.
The Padmanabhaswamy temple treasure is a collection of valuable objects including gold thrones, crowns, coins, statues and ornaments, diamonds and other precious stones. It was discovered in some of the subterranean vaults of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, in the Indian state of Kerala, when five of its six vaults were opened on 27 June 2011. The vaults were opened on the orders of the Supreme Court of India, which was hearing a private petition seeking transparency in the running of the temple. The discovery of the treasure attracted widespread national and international media attention as it is considered to be the largest collection of items of gold and precious stones in the recorded history of the world. On the possibility of future appropriation of the wealth, for the need of a new management and proper inventorisation of the articles in the vaults, a public interest petition was registered with Supreme court of India. In 2020, the royal family won the rights to manage the temple, as well all its financial aspects. The Supreme Court of India overruled the Kerala High Court's legal jurisprudence based on regional facts and recognition of the nullified princely agreement based on "Ruler of Travancore."
On 25 November 2019, royal jewellery was stolen from the Green Vault museum within Dresden Castle in Dresden, Saxony, Germany. The stolen items include the 49-carat Dresden White Diamond, the diamond-laden breast star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle which belonged to the King of Poland, a hat clasp with a 16-carat diamond, a diamond epaulette, and a diamond-studded hilt containing nine large and 770 smaller diamonds, along with a matching scabbard. The missing items were of great cultural value to the State of Saxony and were described as priceless; other sources estimate the total value at about €1 billion. However, in the years following the burglary, more accurate estimates place the total value of the stolen items at around €113 million.