AGR Gems Antwerp Gemology Research

The history of the De Beers syndicate begins in the late 1800s with Cecil Rhodes, who managed to buy all the mines in South Africa. When he died in 1902 he controlled 90% of the world's rough diamond extraction. Through this strategy Rhodes reached his target: the price of diamonds on the market would be controlled by a single player.

A common belief holds that the world diamond trade is in the hands of the Jewish community. After the Second World War and the Nazi persecution, some of the few families who survived had hidden diamonds and precious stones in their clothes. From that experience they built a fast-growing business and joined the Antwerp Diamond Exchange, opened in 1904.

Today there is a Diamond Club in New York, a Diamond Exchange in Tel Aviv and, growing fastest, the Diamond Exchange in Mumbai. All these centres operate mainly through Antwerp, where no VAT is applied on the import and export of diamonds.

After Cecil Rhodes passed away, the Oppenheimer family, cigar merchants, acquired the majority of De Beers, and in 1926 Ernest Oppenheimer became its president. His empire rested on two principles:

1. Control of the supply, to manage prices along the entire supply chain.
2. “A diamond is forever”: a concept spread worldwide. Buying a diamond means buying a safe haven that always keeps its value.

Escaped from Vienna in March 1938, just before Kristallnacht, Bruno Laufer and his parents managed to hide in Merano and then in Rome, until the American army arrived. With the few diamonds and pieces of gold of his mother Clara, at the beginning of the 1960s he started to import from Antwerp and sell all over Italy. On his trips to Antwerp he built solid, competitive relationships, helped by two advantages:

1. he shared the faith of the best manufacturers;
2. he spoke Yiddish, the language of the Jews of northern and eastern Europe.

With his selling skill, by the end of the 1980s he was one of the five major importers in central and southern Italy. Laufer is a guarantee of quality.

Gemological institutes were born in 1973, when the oil crisis brought hyperinflation worldwide. Gold and diamond prices rose by 400 to 500% almost overnight, and many companies began selling diamonds with no knowledge of gemology. To protect buyers from speculation and fraud, the University of Antwerp and the Antwerp Diamond Exchange created the HRD, Hoge Raad voor Diamant, the first laboratory recognised by every diamond exchange in the world.

With the growing demand for certified and sealed diamonds, AGR was founded in 1996 on a precise philosophy:

1. Each stone must be pre-certified by IGI or HRD in Antwerp.
2. Before the stone is sealed, a registered HRD master gemologist double-checks it and only then signs the certificate.