Frederick: It's simply the most stunning gemstone on the planet ... But over 90% of the world's opal comes from Australia. And a lot of the black opal is found here, at Lightning Ridge.

This only increased the stone’s unfortunate association ... in the late 19th and early 20th century when opal deposits were ...

having also declared it as his favourite stone. Warhol was a collector of opals, and Australian artist Laurence Hope described him as having “[fallen] in love” with them after being shown a ...