It is an impressive emerald found in Brazil with the approximate size of a watermelon and is about 12 inches long, weighs approximately 11.5 kilos and is over 57,000 carats. Its name means «gift from God», alluding to the extraordinary nature of this find. The current owner of the jewel Regan Reaney comments that the jewel has traveled a lot, because its discovery was in Brazil, carved in India and later it was transferred to Canada to be auctioned.
Teodora has several candidates competing to be the largest in the world, starting with one located in Colombia, which is 22,000 carats and weighs 2.2 kilos; This piece is exhibited as it was found, it has never been polished and its owners have already stated that they will not subject it to this process under any circumstances.
There are also other large emeralds that compete with Teodora and could even overshadow its majesty, one is located in Hong Kong, weighs 536 kilograms and was found in Madagascar. The other emerald that competes to be the largest in the world is exhibited in Los Angeles, United States, under the name of «Emerald Bay» and weighs 314 kilos, its owner is unknown because there is a legal dispute around the jewel . However, none of these gemstones have been separated from the granite in which they are embedded or carved, thus Theodora is thus far the largest carved emerald found in the world.
In January 2013, the imposing jewel was auctioned at the hands of its owner at the time, Mike Odenbach in Kelowna, Canada; and the auction was directed by the Canadian house Western Star. The initial price was one million dollars, being sold for the substantial sum of 1.15 million dollars to Regan Reaney.
The former owner of the jewel explains that in this world of collectors it is normal for the jewels to end up having a value well above what is stipulated, since in the specific case of Teodora, any collector wants to have the largest emerald in the world and thus revalue not only the piece but its entire collection. Let us also remember that emeralds have always been an extremely expensive object due to how complicated it is to find them and if it is such a magnificent piece it is normal that its cost increases constantly.
Teodora is nothing more than confirmation of how splendid and generous nature can be with us, further ensuring that this gem is always stunning no matter who it belongs to. Until now Teodora stands out above any precious stone found, but for this we cannot sing victory and close the cycle, since we do not know what nature can surprise us with in the future. So for now, we can only enjoy the majesty of this piece and dream of all the jewels that we could wear from Teodora.