The world’s largest emerald will be sold to the highest bidder at a Kelowna, B.C., Canada, auction house on January 28.

“It’s a very beautiful deep green. To me it’s just a thing of beauty. It’s spectacular. It’s just nothing short of spectacular,” said Western Star Auctions owner Mike Odenbach, a gem dealer from Calgary.

“It’s not unusual for gemstones to sell a lot higher than their appraised value, just depending on who wants to possess the largest emerald in the world. Really the sky’s the limit.” – Odenbach

“The gemstone is named ‘Teodora’ and rough translation is ‘God’s Gift.’ To me we’re being given an opportunity to expose ourselves internationally as an auction company that can handle items like this. You know, it really does feel like a gift.” – Odenbach

We received an insightful comment from one of our readers, so we looked a bit further into this story and an article in the Calgary Herald sheds major doubt on the legitimacy of the emerald.

Emeralds are a rare form of the mineral beryl. White beryl is common and largely worthless. White beryl is often dyed green to resemble an emerald but still remains near worthless. The experts who have examined and appraised the stone admit that it was dyed claiming it was only to enchance the true emerald not to falsify it.

But Shane McClure, the director of west coast identification services at the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, California, said white beryl could be dyed any colour or intensity you want.

“If the gemologist says it’s been dyed, there’s no way to know how much dye has been used,” Mr. McClure said.

Mr. McClure has not inspected the emerald in question and said he would advise any potential buyer to have an independent appraisal done before purchasing it. Read more at Calgary Herald, “Gemologist has doubts about giant emerald”

Some facts for the gigantic stone:

• mined in Brazil
• Cut in India
• appraised at $1.15 million
• 57,000-carat
• oval gem
• rough-cut opaque emerald
• weighs 11.5 kilograms (25.3 pounds)
• size of a watermelon