Gary Roskin Interviews Maurice Galli

Image courtesy of Harry Winston

The career of a renowned jewelry designer and his relationship with the world famous Hope Diamond is the subject of a story on The Roskin Gem News Report.

Maurice Galli, 81, a professor of jewelry design, author and longtime senior designer for Harry Winston, Inc., has an illustrious career but there was one glaring hole in his résumé. Even though he has been employed at Harry Winston for more than 50 years and was mentored the company’s founder, Harry Winston, he never had the chance to design a piece of jewelry for the Hope Diamond, the famous blue diamond that was donated to the Smithsonian by Mr. Winston. Needless to say this has changed.

The story is told by Gary Roskin, who is no slouch himself in the world of precious gems. He is one of the world’s leading gemologists as well as a longtime educator and writer. Nearly a year ago, he was given access to the back room of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals while 10 gem experts documented and examined the Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff blue diamonds, the two most famous blue diamonds in the world, to try to determine whether they were ever related. He has been writing about the event and its findings in a series of stories on his website. The Galli story is part of this ongoing series.