With the existence of Large Stones like the Cullinan diamond, other beautiful large gemstones may go under the radar. An example of this is the Lesedi La Rona diamond and this is the story.
The gemstone was discovered in Botswana in 2015 and it is the third largest diamond of gem quality. It is a colourless diamond with very few imperfections weighing 1,111 carats (222.2g) in its natural form. It was given the name Lesedi La Rona which translates to “Our Light”.
Lesedi La Rona Auction
The stone was estimated it could be sold for $40-60 million based on other similar sales. At the Sotheby’s auction in May 2016, the highest bid for the Lasedi La Rona was $61million. However, this fell short of the undisclosed reserve price and was therefore not sold.
A year later the stone was purchased for $53million by British jewellers, Graff Diamonds. Lawrence Graff stated “This was the first time in over 100 years that the chance to cut such a historic stone had presented itself, which was tremendously exciting”.
Graff Stones
Now that the diamond had been sold, it was left to Graff to create a masterpiece from this rock. Against the advice of his team, Graff set out to create mega-sized polished diamond. The team spent nearly two years cutting and polishing the diamond before they reached their goal.
They produced the largest GIA certified diamond of the highest colour and clarity. It is also the worlds largest emarald cut diamond. The stone is still owned by Lawrence Graff today and is one of his prized possessions.
They also produced 66 other stones ranging from 1 – 26 carats each inscribed with “Graff, Lesedi La Rona” and a specific GIA number. The majority of these stones have now been sold.
