(18 Feb 2022) Alaska auctioneer Nick Cline received a call out of the blue last October.
The man said had one of the world's largest opals, and he wanted to auction it off.
Any suspicious thoughts Cline had about it washed away when he saw the nearly 12,000 carat opal, which the man also produced full documentation and provenance of the gem.
It was found in the 1950s in the opal fields of Coober Pedy, Australia.
Dubbed "Americus Australis," it's the sister gem to the even larger Olympic Australis, named after the Summer Olympic Games held in Australia in 1956.
The smaller of the two made its way to America, where Fred von Brandt's grandfather purchased it.
The stone was exhibited for years at gem shows, until the early 1980s, and for some time later in the furniture shop of von Brandt's father, before he tucked it away for many years.
Eventually, it made its way to Alaska after von Brandt's father decided it had been locked up long enough.
The gem will be offered at auction Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022, with an opening bid set at $125,000.
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