Jew­elry designer Munnu Kasli­wal of The Gem Palace is cre­at­ing a new col­lec­tion of antiquity-inspired pieces for The Met­ro­pol­i­tan Museum of Art in New York. This is his fifth col­lab­o­ra­tion with the insti­tu­tion. The April 20, 2007 launch of this recent col­lec­tion by Munnu coor­di­nates with the museum’s unveil­ing of a new retail space devoted to lux­ury goods that pay homage to the crafts­man­ship and clas­si­cal design found in Greek and Roman antiq­ui­ties. Munnu’s designs are a feast of ancient gold­smithing tech­niques worked with lus­cious gum-drops of pre­cious and semi-precious gem­stones.

The Kasli­wal fam­ily is renowned in India, they are own­ers of The Gem Palace and sup­pli­ers to India’s royal fam­i­lies for over one-hundred-and-sixty years. Jew­elry man­u­fac­ture and gem­stone trad­ing has been India’s legacy. The rare and myth­i­cal Gol­conda dia­mond, found in a region of India bear­ing the same name, is prob­a­bly the most well-known and sought-after gem­stone in the world. Long since depleted, these mines were famous for not only their fer­tile reserves, but also for the leg­endary dia­monds that were dis­cov­ered within them: the Koh-i-Noor, the Darya-yi-Noor, the Hope Dia­mond, the Pitt-Regent Dia­mond, the Orloff, the Dres­den Green, the Sancy, and the Idol’s Eye are just a few examples.