Mega-Gem
Mega-Gem is an outdoor aluminum sculpture by American artist John Francis Torreano, created in 1989. It looks like a tilted, oversized round-cut diamond with 18 facets and 36 colored metal rosettes scattered across its plates. The main body is gray welded aluminum; the rosettes are anodized or painted aluminum in blue, green, red-orange, red, gold, silver, and black. The piece measures about 7 ft 2 in tall, 11 ft long, and 7 ft 2 in wide (220 cm × 340 cm × 220 cm) and weighs around 2,000 pounds (910 kg). It sits on a concrete base.
Mega-Gem was first shown at the Chicago International Art Exposition on Navy Pier, where it was promoted as the largest diamond in the world, weighing over 360 million carats. Torreano described it as part of an "oxy-gem" series that combines precious gems with less expensive materials.
The sculpture was loaned to the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) in 1994 for two years. The IMA acquired it in 1997 with funds from the Contemporary Art Society and donors, and it became part of the museum’s collection (acc. 1997.6). It has been displayed at various locations in Indianapolis, including Krannert Plaza and near 38th Street and Michigan Road, before moving in January 2009 to the IUPUI campus to make way for the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park (opened 2010).
Today Mega-Gem sits in a courtyard on the IUPUI campus at 815 W. Michigan Street, north of New York Street, east of Lecture Hall and south of Joseph T. Taylor Hall. It is one of four IMA works loaned to IUPUI as part of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a bike and pedestrian route linking cultural districts.
The rosette paint faded over time and was repainted by Torreano in 1996 in preparation for the IMA acquisition.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:15 (CET).