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Masterpieces Of The Earth Presents
.

The Richard Berger Collection



"Pretty impressive!"

Dr. Stephen Hawking
Theoretical physicist and author of A Brief History of Time

 


A vibrant green fluorite crystal cluster with white quartz
stalactites from Jiangxi Province, China - mounted on a hand
carved, sculpted wooden base.

 
 Dimensions: 39.5"w x 27"h x 14"d
Estimated Wt: 350 lbs.

 
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LIVE LINKS

 


Masterpieces of The Earth video



CBS Sunday Morning Program (viewed by several million people)

Seattle Magazine: An Art Collection for the Ages 


Secret Lives of the Super Rich: CNBC Password: cnbc (lower case)


NPR Seattle KNKX A Man who Quit Medical School
to Hunt for the Earth's Treasures


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Luminous aquamarine crystals on black tourmaline - schorl -
from Namibia, S.W. Africa

(Close up below)


Dimensions: 8"h x 3.5"w x 4.5"d
Estimated Wt: 7 lbs

 




"People leave saying it is one of the most compelling
artistic experiences of their lives..."

CBS Evening News, Seattle, Washington





  This extraordinary specimen includes mordenite crystals,
stilbite crystals, thomsonite crystals, with high vertical walls
of lustrous green apophyllite crystals.  There are three specimens
from this discovery in the collection. Two are relatively small
while this cluster is considered the largest and finest of its kind.

 
Dimensions: 22.5"w x 21"d x 14"h
Estimated Wt: 225 lbs. to 250 lbs.
 

 
Fossilized palm frond on a matrix of limestone with a "school"
of fossil fish of five different species. It dates back to the
Green River Formation in Southwestern Wyoming, 52 million
years ago.  Considered the largest and finest original
 palm/fish fossil of its kind to be found in the
last hundred years. Excavated nearly 40 years ago.

Dimensions: 13' 6" high x 12' 3" wide x 5.5" deep
Estimated Wt: 1,800lbs



One of the most remarkable amethyst and calcite formations
of its size we've seen.  Recently discovered in Artigas, Uruguay.
The amethyst crystals are of a very deep purple color and there are a
series of towering stalactites emerging from the base. Every one
of the beige white calcite crystals are coated with hundreds of
sparkling drusy crystals which makes the piece look
like it is straight out of a fairy tale.


Dimensions: 53"w x 46"d x 32"h
Estimated Wt: 1,200 to 1,400 lbs.


"Nothing prepares a visitor for the awe-inspiring experience
of a visit to Seattle’s Masterpieces of The Earth Gallery"

The Vancouver Sun, British Columbia



  An astoundingly beautiful aragonite and chalcedony crystal
cluster. It is formed of radiating delicate branches of pure
white aragonite crystals emerging out a bed of blue chalcedony.
Discovered in an old ore mine in China. It is
mounted on a custom made hardwood base.


Dimensions: 49"h x 37"w x 23"d
Estimated Wt: 900 lbs.


Video of aragonite chalcedony cluster




One of the largest fossil ammonites of this quality. It
was discovered in the high Chihuahuan Desert in northern
Mexico in the early 1970s.  The patterns that appear to be plant
life are suture patterns that were generated when the animal
increased its shell size.  The suture patterns demarcate where the
muscles of the ammonite secured it to the expanded shell in order
to protect it from being pulled  out by predators and strong
ocean currents. 

It lived 95 to 100 million years ago in an inland
ocean... the North American Inland Sea which stretched
from Mexico to Canada until the Rocky Mountains
began to rise and eventually displaced the ocean.
A large fossilized mollusk can be seen at the opening
of the feeding chamber of the ammonite.


Dimensions: 44"w X 41"h x 10"d
Estimated Wt: 700 lbs.


 

A crown of brilliant pink rose quartz crystals on a single
crystal of quartz with green tourmaline/elbaite crystals
 suspended inside of the quartz crystal
From Minas Gerais, Brazil.


Dimensions: 7.5"h x 6"w x 5"d
Estimated Wt. 8 lbs


A near three-quarter ton, spectacular, single giant quartz crystal
filled with rainbow inclusions. The finest unpolished crystal of
its size we have seen in over 30 years.  From Minas Gerais, Brazil.
(close up of the termination is below)

Dimensions: 54"h x 33"d x 35"w
Estimated Wt: 1,600 lbs.



"That was a moment in time that I will never forget...
the other worldly beauty of what you had the passion to retrieve
with so much care and the unselfish need to show the world
what eternal art that springs from Mother Earth
is trying to tell us ...is heroic ...thank you, Richard"

       
Herb Alpert, world renowned musician, co-founder
of The Tijuana Brass, Founder of A&M Records, The Herb Alpert
 School of Music at the UCLA, and The Herb Alpert Foundation



A beautiful rainbow petrified wood with spectacular color and
a dramatic knot in the center.  Discovered in Arizona on
private land near the Petrified Forest. It is 225 million years
old and each of the various colors are the result of
specific minerals that seeped into the wood during the
fossilization process.

Dimensions: 96"w x 42.5"h x 3.75"d (including backing)
Estimated Wt: 650 lbs




A giant, two million year old 'natural sculpture' concretion from
Fontainebleau, France. This is one of the four largest and finest
specimens of its kind in the world and presents fabulously
360 degrees around. Between 1988 and 1991, Richard acquired
all of the Fontainebleau concretions from the largest discovery
in the last 350 years.
The previous find of this scale was in the mid 1600s and all
the pieces wound up in the private gardens of
King Louis the X1V at Versailles Palace.


There was also a small discovery around 1910/1915 with some
 of those "natural sculptures" acquired by Henry Moore, Jean Arp,
Constantine Brancusi, the National Museum of Natural History
in Paris, and a number of the French Surrealists.

To the best of our knowledge, up to 2015, every museum
of natural history in the United States that has a Fontainebleau
concretion, including the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
in D.C., acquired them from The Richard Berger Collection.


Dimensions: 51" wide x 26" deep x 54" high (including 7" base)
Estimated Wt:  2,600 lbs. to 3,100 lbs.



 

Video of one of the largest Fontainebleau concretions






Micro-crystallized quartz picture onyx from Mexico.
While onyx itself is not at all rare, this piece rivals some modern
art in terms of its extraordinary aesthetic. Two adjacent sections
have been polished and set side by side to create a mirror image of itself.
It is lighted from behind, with the lighting encased
within the framing of the stone.

Dimensions: 63"h x 39.25"w x 4"d
Estimated Wt: 195 lbs. to 215 lbs.

A 950 lb. quartz crystal cluster from the Coleman mine in
Jessieville Arkansas. The quality and composition are exceptional
with a huge crystal erupting out of the center of the cluster.
This is the first giant crystal that Richard acquired well over
four decades ago that launched his dream to build
The Richard Berger Collection/Museum Project.
Over 180 million years old.

Dimensions: 31"w x 32.5"d x 34"h
Estimated Wt: 950 lbs


***


"I’m leery of words like 'the biggest,' 'the oldest,' and 'the finest.'
After checking out The Masterpieces of the Earth Gallery...
I believe those words... These are mind- boggling specimens!"

Deloris Ament, Arts Editor, Seattle Times and award winning author


***




A beautiful giant curved wall of green apophyllite crystals
and peach colored stilbite crystals in a matrix of volcanic basalt
from India.  Very elegant, and subtle, with beautiful color.
This is considered the  largest single pocket of zeolites to be
extracted intact from the sub-continent of India.

Dimensions: estimated 112"w x 30"h x 29"d
(nearly 14 feet on the curve of the perimeter)
Estimated Wt: 3500 lbs. to 4500 lbs.


Closeup of the specimen above





The smallest piece in The Richard Berger Collection is also one of
the rarest agate specimens in the world and the only such
piece ever seen. It was discovered nearly sixty years ago and
was studied by both the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
and the Burke Museum which determined that this perfectly
formed egg embedded in bullseye agate was not associated
with any biological life forms. This is a real paradigm
breaker since it was never a fossil and is functionally
the algorithmic prototype of the egg shape itself, generated
exclusively by geological forces independent of any life forms.



While there are some eggs, such as dinosaur eggs that date
back well over two hundred million years, this extraordinary
geometric form from Montana (estimated to be 85 million
years old) demonstrates that geological forces are quite
capable of generating on their own such an object and there are
most likely other such ancient forms still in the earth
undiscovered that are older than any fossilized
eggs that ever existed.

Dimensions: 7"w x 6.5"d x 3.5"h
Estimated Wt: 7 lbs.




Pure white needles of scolecite crystals on a
bed of stilbite crystals and volcanic basalt.
From Maharashtra, Ahmednagar
district, India

Dimensions: 17"h x 15"w x 6"d
Estimated Wt: 45 lbs.

 

***
"Berger's specimens are truly outstanding, the quality
is fabulous...It would be rare anywhere in the world

to see specimens of this caliber."


Dr. Karl Hutterer, Emeritus Director of The Burke Museum
of Natural History and Culture, Seattle, WA

***


A near two ton, giant natural quartz crystal over 520 million
years old. The crystals transmits light throughout and because
of its extraordinary shape and clarity appears as a faceted
jewel. All of the crystal points are double terminated, so there
is virtually no matrix. (unheard for a crystal cluster of this size)
being that it has almost no direct connection to the earth. 

It was discovered in Namibia in the early 1980s in a
150 foot deep crevasse while searching for pegmatites.
It took over five years to extract this piece and the
several others from that pocket out of the ground.

Dimensions: 47" high x 54.5" wide x 42" depth
Estimated Wt: 3,800 lbs. to 4,000 lbs.


 

The collection continues...
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