Graff Diamonds is on a roll. After buying the 1,109-ct Lesedi La Rona for a cool US$53 million in September, the London jewellery company has picked up the 709-ct Peace Diamond for a bargain US$6.5 million through an auction by Rapaport in New York for the Sierra Leone government.
The second largest rough diamond ever discovered in Sierra Leone, the Peace Diamond was unearthed near the village of Koryardu by artisanal miners. All proceeds from the sale will go towards benefiting the local community and providing them with clean water, electricity, medical facilities, schools, bridges and roads.
“It is always special to be able to give back to the places that provide us with these beautiful stones,” says Laurence Graff, founder of Graff Diamonds.
The winning bid doesn’t measure up to what the Sierra Leone government had expected the Peace Diamond to fetch. It had turned down an earlier bid of US$7.8 million, banking on the rough selling for a higher price at an international auction. Diamond experts say the Peace Diamond is likely a complicated rough that might not yield a single large clean stone when cleaved.
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