Los Angeles is glowing from the inside out at the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park, where the special exhibition Unearthed: Raw Beauty is showing some of the largest and rarest mineral specimens ever displayed in their natural, uncut form — many of them on view for the very first time.
Instead of polished gemstones behind glass, visitors descend into an immersive, otherworldly gallery where crystals grow thicker than a tree trunk. Among the stars are a group of extremely rare blue cap tourmalines, discovered near San Diego and reunited for the first time, plus a joyful parade of California treasures: bright pink kunzite, orange spessartine, deep blue benitoite — California’s state gemstone — and a natural gold flame, the state mineral.
The exhibition, organized by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in collaboration with the Gallery of Natural Art, brings together more than 150 exceptional specimens, many from the museum’s own collection. Along the way there are exquisite carvings from China, jewelry made from rare minerals, a large fossil ammonite, and massive crystals visitors can actually touch — a hands-on reminder, as curator of mineral sciences Dr. Aaron Celestian and his team show, of how minerals quietly shape everyday life.
Unearthed: Raw Beauty runs through April 18, 2027, at the Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is free with general admission and free for members — a sparkling excuse for a family day in Exposition Park.
Photo: Jllm06 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
