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Hyderabad museum to exhibit Nizam's jewels

The internationally-renowned Salar Jung Museum is planning to host the first-ever, month-long exhibition of the fabulous Nizam's jewellery next year.

According to Salar Jung Museum director A K V S Reddy, the museum board met under the chairmanship of Governor Dr C Rangarajan last week and discussed the proposal following the green signal from the department of tourism and culture for hosting the exhibition of the Nizam's jewellery, which is presently kept in the safe custody of the Reserve Bank of India in New Delhi.

Although Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been pleading with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to shif the Nizam's jewellery to Hyderabad for permanent exhibition in a special museum, the government of India is likely to send the jewellery for display at the museum for a month during the first half of 2001.

The jewellery will be displayed amidst special security. The jewellery is likely to be exhibited in the main building of the museum complex. Two to three halls will be reinforced and 32 special gauge showcases with bullet-proof glass panes will be custom-built by the Godrej Steels for the purpose.

Sophisticated electronic gadgets and special lighting will be provided for fool-proof security. The special arrangements will cost Rs 10 million to Rs 15 million and once the exhibition is over, the showcases will be used for display of the Jade collection of the Salar Jung Museum.

The fabulous jewellery of the erstwhile Nizams of Hyderabad, acquired by the government of India from the Nizam's Jewellery Trust for Rs 2.18 billion in 1995, consists of 173 items, including 37 pieces of priceless value and antiquity. The Nizam's jewellery has been rated by the Christies and the Sothebys of London as among the finest collections in the world.

The worth of the Nizam's jewellery was estimated at Rs 10 billion to Rs 12 billion by some international auctioneers a decade ago. Their present worth could be anywhere between 400 to 500 million dollars (i.e. Rs 18.7 billion to Rs. 23.37 billion).

The jewellery collection of outstanding beauty and quality includes Columbian emeralds of unique sizes and weight, jewellery which once formed part of the Russian treasury, necklaces of emeralds, pearls, turban ornaments in emeralds and diamonds, gold belts with diamond-studded buckles, diamond-studded sword-sheaths, gold rings, nose-rings, brooches, buttons, cuff-links, watches, gold bangles, anklets, et al.

The priceless collection also includes the 184.75 carat uncut Jacob's Diamond (the third largest in the world, which was bought from a Jewish diamond merchant by the erstwhile Nizam), 22 partially cut unmounted emeralds (weighing 414.25 carats, of exceptionally fine colour and purity), the diamond-set belt made in France by Oscar Massin Pieres, the seven-strand necklace made up of 150 large and 230 small pearls with a two-diamond centrepiece (weighing 705 grams) and a pair of diamond and gold bracelets weighing 150 grams and studded with 270 Villandi diamonds.

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