the.com/lapis lazuli
a rock so blue that Renaissance painters guarded it like gold and reserved it for the Virgin Mary
priceonce cost more per ounce than gold
sourcemostly mined from one Afghan valley for 6,000 years
pigmentground into ultramarine, the most coveted blue
tutankhamuninlaid into the pharaoh's iconic gold mask
compositiona rock, not a mineral, flecked with golden pyrite