For example, a slab of Statuario or Calacatta marble can cost ... and because of its millennial history, the Carrara quarries have produced more marble than any other place on Earth.

And calacatta is one of the world's most expensive types of marble. It's more than double the price of carrara marble, yet mined in the same mountains. But the key to calacatta's price is its rarity.

The stone extracted from outside the nearby city of Carrara, including from the white marble quarry in the image below, is widely regarded as the purest and most valuable in the world. Before ...