Our origin in the diamond capital
Antwerp Gemological Laboratory was founded on a simple conviction — that buyers, dealers, and collectors deserve gemological reports they can trust without reservation. From its earliest days in Antwerp's historic Diamond District, AGL set out to combine traditional gemological craftsmanship with the most advanced analytical instrumentation available to modern science.
Antwerp has been the world's pre-eminent diamond trading hub for more than five centuries. By rooting our practice in this heritage, we adopted standards shaped by generations of jewellers, cutters, and assayers, and refined them with the rigour of contemporary spectroscopic analysis. That dual inheritance — deep tradition and uncompromising science — remains the backbone of every certificate we issue today.
Expansion to Sri Lanka and Shanghai
As global demand for transparent, evidence-based grading grew, AGL extended its presence to the world's most important coloured-stone source — Sri Lanka — opening a fully equipped laboratory in Beruwala. Ratnapura and the Beruwala coast have produced legendary blue sapphires, padparadschas, star sapphires, and chrysoberyl cat's-eyes for over two thousand years, and our presence there allows us to certify stones directly at source.
Our Shanghai office, situated in the HuangPu District, serves the rapidly growing Chinese collector market and supports trade across East Asia. Together, our three locations form a single integrated network — every certificate, regardless of where it is issued, is recorded in the same secure verification database and meets the same scientific standard.
A scientific approach to grading
Modern gemology is no longer a matter of the loupe and the polariscope alone. Sophisticated treatments, synthetic materials, and intricate origin questions demand a far broader analytical toolkit. AGL's laboratories are equipped with Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF), Raman spectroscopy, and UV-VIS-NIR absorption analysis — in addition to the full complement of classical instruments.
Every stone is examined by at least two senior gemologists before a report is issued, and every conclusion — on species, variety, treatment, and origin — is supported by recorded analytical data. We refuse to speculate. Where evidence is insufficient to support a definitive conclusion, our reports say so plainly.
Accreditation and standards
Our senior gemologists hold credentials from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (FGA), the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and the International Gemological Institute (IGI). Our laboratory protocols draw on guidelines published by the Laboratory Manual Harmonisation Committee (LMHC) and the International Coloured Gemstone Association (ICA), and our diamond grading follows the 4 Cs framework universally accepted across the trade.
AGL certificates are accepted by dealers, jewellers, auction houses, and private collectors in more than thirty countries. The certificate is the deliverable that matters most to our clients — and we treat each one as a document that may be relied upon in transactions, valuations, insurance, and legal proceedings for decades to come.
Leadership philosophy
Independence is the foundation of every gemological report. AGL does not buy, sell, or value gemstones on its own account, and we accept no commercial relationship that could influence a grading decision. Our gemologists are paid to identify what is in front of them — not what a client hopes to hear.
We believe that gemstone certification, done properly, protects everyone in the chain — the cutter, the dealer, the retailer, the collector, and ultimately the consumer. That conviction guides the way we hire, the way we train, and the way we equip our laboratories.
