The brooch is on display in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., United States.
[2] The rough emerald was sent to Europe by Spanish conquistadors to be cut and polished, before being sold to the ruling family of the Ottoman Empire.
The Sultan feared a potential coup by the Young Turks, and hoped that the proceeds from the sale of the gems would allow him to escape to a comfortable life in exile should a revolution come to pass.
However, the money raised by the sale of the gems—to a dealer by the name of Salomon or Selim Habib—fell to the succeeding government following the Young Turk Revolution.
It remained with the company until 1955, when it was purchased by Janet Annenberg Hooker,[5] a philanthropic heiress and the emerald's namesake, for an undisclosed price.