By Brad Fox, NewYorker.com, June 7, 2016
The eleven-hundred-and-nine-carat rough stone, found in Botswana, last November, could fetch at least seventy million dollars at auction later this month
Traditionally, rough diamonds are sold via private bids. Prospective buyers come to inspect the stone, try to imagine what they can cut it into and what that could sell for, and then make offers. But, given the singular nature of this find, Lucara decided on a different approach, hiring Sotheby’s to put the diamond up for public auction and organizing a competition in Botswana to name it.
