IN PICS | Could this diamond-encrusted mask be the world's most expensive facewear?

Art rather than ostentation is the rationale behind the world's most expensive coronavirus mask, say the Israeli jewellers who are crafting the $1.5 million (approx. R26m) object for an unnamed US-based client.

Made out of 18 carat gold and studded with 3,600 black and white diamonds, the mask will be fitted with an N99 filter to offer a high level of protection, said Isaac Levy, owner of the Yvel jewellery brand.

“I don't say (the customer is) going to use it going to the supermarket but he is going to use it here and there, I'm sure,” said Levy.

He described the client as a Chinese art collector living in the US.

“He is a young-old customer of ours, very charming, very outgoing, very wealthy and he likes to stand out,” Levy said. The jeweller plans to deliver the mask personally when it is completed, in October.

The mask, which a team of about 25 artisans is working on, might be viewed a vulgar display of wealth during hard economic times, but for Levy it is above all a work of art.