A Yellow diamond becomes the "blackest black" diamond on Wall Street.

By Katherine Keener Published on 31 August 2019 at 19 h 26 min

The four C’s of diamonds, or the cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight, are how we assess diamonds. But, what happens when the diamond disappears? In just a couple of weeks, artist Diemut Strebe will make a diamond disappear, well kind of.

The 16 carat fancy vivid yellow diamond before coverage of the black nanotubes, image courtesy of Diemut Strebe

On September 13th, The Redemption of Vanity, an installation by Strebe will go on view at the New York Stock Exchange. The work consists of a 16.78 carat natural yellow diamond that is valued at about $2 million. The diamond, though, is covered in ‘the blackest black ever created,’ which is made of carbon nanotubes. What those carbon nanotubes (CNT) will do is make the diamond virtually invisible to the eye and the diamond will instead appear more or less like a plain black spot.

The diamond at the centre of The Redemption of Vanity is sourced from L.J. West Diamonds Inc. For Strebe, the value associated with the diamond was integral part of the artwork. She told ARTnews that ‘[The diamond] is enormous! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a highly symbolic object. [This piece] could be seen as a challenge to the art market.’

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