The Munich Show 2023 was back to the standard. Lot of new and outstanding mineral specimens, good bargains and many new publications. The main show exhibition was truly magnificent, with outstanding specimens and their paintings.
The Munich Show 2023 was again pretty rushed. I planned to go for at least two days, but the circumstances were not on my side. Obviously, one day is not enough to notice all the interesting news and specimens. I barely had time to photograph material for this report.
You can check reports from previous years here:
My time for personal meetings and chats was very limited. I had to meet Albert Russ and get his new book Minerals of Slovakia. And I managed to quickly talk with Lyudmila Cheshko, greet Jolyon Ralph, László Kupi and few other friends.
Main Exhibition - Art d'Objet
The main exhibition was definitely outstanding this season. The event was named Art d'Objet, with very impressive display of original (!) mineral art and the depicted specimens together. I tried to represent the exhibition with some share for most artists, but just this exhibition alone would require a special report. So many great specimens and their art reproductions. Just a note, the most abundant artwork form was watercolor.
I was very glad that I had a chance to shortly talk with nice ladies - Ksenia Levterova and Tama Higuchi-Roos. And I even got a signed artwork from Ksenia, thank you very much again!
Interesting botryoidal chalcopyrite (variety blister copper) from Tonglushan, Hubei, China.
Thomas Weiland collection, Hildegard Könighofer painting (watercolor and color pencils).
Impressive native gold - nicknamed "Christmas Tree" - from Grit Mine, California, USA.
William F. Larson collection, Maren Westfall painting (watercolor).
Various watercolor paintings by Tama Higuchi-Roos.
Large and quite gemmy emerald from Rist Mine, North Carolina, USA.
Houston Museum of Natural Science collection, Tama Higuchi-Roos painting (watercolor).
Famous "Blue Cap" tourmaline - nicknamed "Rabbit Ears" - from Tourmaline Queen Mine, Pala, California, USA.
Houston Museum of Natural Science collection, Tama Higuchi-Roos painting (watercolor).
Another "Blue Cap" tourmaline from Tourmaline Queen Mine, Pala, California, USA.
Mineral Trust David Yampol collection, Eberhard Equit painting (watercolor).
Impressive etched aquamarine from Pedra Azul, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Marcus Budil collection, Eberhard Equit painting (watercolor).
Top quality tanzanite on matrix from Merelani Hills, Tanzania.
Marcus Budil collection, Pietra Dura mosaic (Scarpelli mosaici)
Nice clear gypsum crystal on matrix.
Frederick C. Wilda collection and painting (watercolor).
Classic clear halite crystals from Hallein, Salzburg, Austria.
Museum Mineralogia München collection, Claus Caspari painting (watercolor).
Various mineral acrylic paintings by British artist Christopher Smith-Duque.
Various mineral oil paintings by Markus Uebelhart.
Monster sized morganite crystal from Shengus, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.
Private collection, Stefanie Berens painting (watercolor).
Nice brown pyromorphite from Rosenberg Mine, Braubach, Germany.
Edgar Müller collection, Stefanie Berens painting (watercolor).
Bi-color topaz crystal from Khoroshiv (ex. Volodarsk-Volynskii), Ukraine.
Ksenia Levterova collection and painting (watercolor).
Interesting combo of wolframite, fluorite and pyrite from Yaogangxian Mine, Hunan, China.
Mario Pauwels collection, Ksenia Levterova painting (watercolor).
Crazy irridescent stephanite from Husky Mine, Yukon, Canada.
Private collection, Rebecca Johnston painting (pastel pencils).
Huge cluster of aquamarine, K-feldspar and quartz from Pakistan.
Christoph Keilmann collection, Rebecca Johnston painting (pastel pencils)
The center piece of the exhibition and one of the most visible specimens at the whole show was a huge cluster nicknamed "supernova". The aquamarine, quartz, K-feldspar and schorl cluster from Pakistan looks very impressive on the photos, but seeing this outstanding specimen in person is completely different experience.
Alpine Cleft Minerals
The selection of Alpine minerals was significantly larger then in 2021, with some interesting displays and new finds. However, I struggle with pointing out some true highlight - perhaps I'm becoming too picky.
Interesting was the amount of Alpine type minerals from outside the Alps. I noticed gwindels from India, very nice rutile from Azerbaijan, of course lot of material from Pakistan and Brazil and some from Russia.
Large and deep colored fluorite crystal from Planggenstock, Switzerland.
Nice pink fluorite crystals from classic locality at Planggenstock, Switzerland.
Nice dark smoky quartz cluster with small pink fluorite from Dente del Gigante, Mt. Blanc Massif, France.
Left: Classic smoky quartz Gwindel from Furkahorn, Switzerland.
Right: Typical light smoky quartz Gwindel but from Manihar Mt., Himachal Pradesh, India.
Typical green titanite (var. sphene) crystals on matrix from Gilgit, Pakistan.
Rutilated quartz crystals with dense golden rutile needles inside from Novo Horizonte, Bahia, Brazil.
Left: Oriented growth of red rutile needles inside a clear quartz crystal from Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Right: Highly aesthetic rutile crystals on quartz from Kapuldzhik, Azerbaijan.
Rich cluster of dark babingtonite crystals from Qiaojia, Yunnan, China.
Pegmatite Minerals
The selection of pegmatite minerals is always good, but this season was extraordinary even to Munich standard. There were incredible and huge clusters with aquamarine from Pakistan, both on sale and at the special exhibition. The exhibition included also monster sized morganite crystal, definitely biggest I have ever seen in person. Obviously, super famous "Bluecap" tourmalines from California received a lot of attention too.
Commercial presentations included top quality aquamarines from Pakistan, wide range of tourmalines from common localities and also less common from Myanmar (Burma), nice feldpars, pollucites and all types of quartz. I noticed also very nice euclase specimens, interesting aquamarine from Mozambique, monster fluorites from Erongo and pretty nice selection of pink quartz crystals from Brazil.
Typical thin and long green tourmalines from Brazil.
Quite large orange-pink tourmaline from Khetchel, Malo, Myanmar.
Bright pink rubellite tourmaline from Pachigram, Nuristan, Afghanistan.
Nice cluster of topaz crystals from Pantaw, Myanmar.
Green tourmaline with red terminations and little pink lepidolite from Cruzeiro Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Blue sapphire crystal from Ilmeny Mountains, Ural, Russia.
Crystalline pink quartz from Lavra da Ilha, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Pink rubellite tourmaline with quartz from Mogok, Myanmar.
Left: Zoned tourmaline crystals with albite and lepidolite from Stak Nala, Pakistan.
Large and sharp pollucite crystals from Shigar Valley, Pakistan.
Left: Zoned tourmaline crystal from Afghanistan.
Right: Nice pink kunzite crystal from Dara-i-Pech, Kunar Province, Afghanistan
Gemmy and perfectly shaped morganite crystal from Urucum Mine, Doce Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Doubly terminated quartz crystal with red tourmaline from Coronel Murta, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Quite big cluster with typical blue-striped euclase crystals from Brazil.
Large crystal of pale and etched fluorite from Erongo, Namibia.
Quite big cluster of feldspars, smoky quartz, aquamarine and schorl from Erongo, Namibia.
Unusual and richly shaped aquamarine crystal from Alto Lingonha, Mozambique.
Nice albite cluster with top quality aquamarine from Pakistan.
Very large cluster of feldspars, quartz and numerous aquamarine crystals from Pakistan.
Huge cluster of feldspar, quartz and obviously aquamarine from Pakistan.
Another monster-sized cluster from Pakistan, this time dominated by feldspars and quartz with minor aquamarine and schorl.
Secondary Minerals
The amount of colorful and highly popular secondary minerals was huge. There were numerous new colorful minerals from Africa, I noticed especially quite large amount of dioptase. There is still a huge reserve of vivianite from Brazil. There was, of course, wide selection of classic secondary minerals from US, Mexico and China.
The new finds of very large crystals of vanadinite from Mibladen, Morocco were widely available. The crystals were not so dark as finds 1-2 years back, but they were red-orange and probably even bigger. Also crazy specimens of (probably secondary) native gold on shattuckite from Kaokoveld, Namibia.
Classic bright green pyromorphite specimen from Daoping Mine, Guilin Prefecture, China.
Dioptase crystals on pale blue chrysocolla from Kimbedi, Congo.
Crazy specimen of native gold sitting on bright green shattuckite from Kaokoveld, Namibia.
Some impressively huge vanadinite crystals from Mibladen in Morocco were on sale. Unfortunately, the trimming was sometimes quite wild.
Left: Superb vanadinite on baryte from ACF Mine, Mibladen, Morocco.
Right: Nice orange wulfenite from Jianshan Mine, Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China.
Flat orange wulfenite crystals from Erupción Mine, Los Lamentos, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Unusual tiny needles of vivianite from Huanuni, Oruro, Bolivia.
Various Mixed Minerals
New andradite specimens from Hormozgan, Iran were quite nice and large.
Large hematite crystals from Hormozgan, Iran.
Left: Etched apatite crystal on dark green diopside from Mipwapwa, Dodoma, Tanzania.
Right: Large cluster of pale danburite crystals from Charcas, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Huge cluster of baryte from Sardinia, Italy.
Big bournonite crystal with fluorite and quartz from Yaogangxian Mine, Hunan province, China.
Interesting pseudomorphs of pyrite and calcite after fluorite from Dalnegorsk, Russia.
Cluster of cubic galena crystals from Joplin, Missouri, USA.
Historic specimen of complex galena crystals from Piekary Slaskie, Poland.
Lazulite crystals from Rapid Creek, Yukon, Canada.
So called "Mango Quartz" crystals from Cabiche, Colombia.
New finds of native gold with nepheline from Tiglit, Guelmim, Morocco.
Painite crystal from Kyauk-Pyat-Thet (near Mogok), Myanmar.
Complex pyrite cubes with quartz from Huanzala, Peru.
Nice rubies from classic site in Prilep, Macedonia.
Left: Almost gemmy cherry-red spinel from Mogok, Myanmar.
Right: Large crystal of pink spinel from Luc Yen, Vietnam.
Historic piece of great stephanite crystals from Freiberg, Germany.
Left: Diamond crystal in matrix from Udachnaya Mine, Yakutia, Russia.
Right: Big crystals of natrolite from Khibiny Mts., Kola Peninsula, Russia.
And fossil skeleton of Triceratopsat the end.
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