The Gemological Institute of America has refuted claims made in a press statement released by EightStar Diamond Company, makers of the EightStar diamond, which was based on two GIA studies.

GIA objects to EightStar’s claims, that GIA considers the EightStar diamond to be the “perfect diamond.”

In it’s own press release, GIA states that two of its studies on diamond brilliance make no such claim and the organization wasn’t looking for the perfect diamond. In addition, GIA doesn’t endorse products. GIA’s press release reads as follows:

A press release issued by EightStar Diamond Company Jan. 31, 2002 states the EightStar diamond, “.won a search by the prestigious Gemological Institute of America for a perfect diamond,” and another statement, “The renowned Gemological Institute of America looked at 67,000 diamonds in an attempt to find stones whose symmetry matched that of a perfect diamond it had created on the computer. Only one real-world diamond equaled GIA’s cyber-diamond for perfection of shape and faceting: the EightStar diamond.”

The GIA studies on diamond “brilliance” (published in the Fall 1998 issue of Gems & Gemology) and “fire” (published in the Fall 2001 issue of Gems & Gemology) found there are multiple sets of proportions that produce favorable light return in diamonds. There was never an intent-stated or implied-in either of these studies to “attempt to find stones whose symmetry matched that of a perfect diamond…created in a computer,” as stated in the EightStar press release. Furthermore, GIA has never said it was searching for a perfect diamond.

The EightStar diamond was used in the brilliance study solely to satisfy the need for a stone with high symmetry to illustrate the appearance of a diamond in fully diffused lighting, not to serve as a model of a “perfect” diamond. In fact, it was specifically stated in the acknowledgements for that article (p. 182, Gems & Gemology, Fall 1998)) that the EightStar diamond “approximated the symmetry of the (computer) model.”

Likewise, there was no conclusion reached in either study indicating that the EightStar diamond “equaled GIA’s cyber-diamond for perfection of shape and faceting…” In fact, GIA has often stated publicly that there is no single best set of proportions for a diamond (a major conclusion in the published reports) and GIA has never defined or described a “perfect diamond” based on a given set of criteria.

The EightStar press release in question can be found here.

JCK