12-4-2019
London-based diamantaire Graff Diamonds has unveiled its largest emerald-cut diamond in the world weighing 302.37 carats and graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) as highest colour D. It is now named as the Graff Lesedi La Rona. The giant was cut from a 1,109-carat rough unearthed at a Botswana mine in 2015, the second-largest diamond found in more than 100 years which was purchased by Graff in 2017 at US$53 million.
According to Graff, a custom scanner was built to analyse the diamond and the best possible cut. Initial cutting was done with lasers and the shaping and faceting were done by hand. Lesedi La Rona took the cutters a little more than 18 months from planning to polishing. Laurence Graff, founder of Graff Diamonds described the task of cutting a diamond of this size as “the riskiest form of art.”
Lesedi La Rona is available for sale, instead of auction. However, the company declined to put a value on it. Fragments from the cutting of the stone were donated to the Smithsonian Institute for diamond research.
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