Orlov

The Orlov (sometimes spelled Orloff), also known as The Great Mughal Diamond, is a large diamond of Indian origin, currently displayed as a part of the Diamond Fund collection of Moscow's Kremlin Armoury. It is described as having the shape and proportions of half a chicken's egg. In 1774, it was encrusted into the Imperial Sceptre of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. History The diamond was found in the 17th century in Golconda, India. According to one legend, a French soldier who had deserted during the Carnatic wars in Srirangam disguised himself as a Hindu convert in order to steal it in 1747, when it served as the eye of a temple deity Sriranganathar. The as yet unnamed stone passed from merchant to merchant, eventually appearing for sale in Amsterdam. Most modern scholars are now convinced that this stone was actually the Great Mogul Diamond. Shaffrass, an Iranian millionaire who then owned the diamond, found an eager buyer in Hovhannes Lazarian who acted on behalf of Count Grigory Grigorievich Orlov. The Count paid a purported 1.4 million Dutch florins for it.