Louis Vuitton Buys 1,758ct. Diamond from Lucara

RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond Corp. has sold Botswana's largest diamond to Louis Vuitton in a rare move that will see the fashion house partner with an Antwerp manufacturer to polish the stone.The mining company will receive an up-front payment for the 1,758-carat Sewel?? rough and retain a 50% interest in the final polished, it said in a statement Wednesday. While the diamond is of variable quality, and appears black, recent analysis has confirmed it includes "domains of higher-quality white gem," Lucara added."Lucara believes that the full potential of this special stone will only be revealed once polished," the statement continued. "The purpose of this unprecedented collaboration between a miner, a cutting-edge manufacturer and a large luxury brand will be the planning, cutting and polishing of a collection of diamonds from Sewel??."The selling price was in the "millions," The New York Times quoted Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke as saying. The polishing will take place via a partnership with Belgium's HB Company. The resulting jewelry will commemorate the "extraordinary discovery" and benefit the people of Botswana, said Lucara CEO Eira Thomas. As part of the deal, 5% of the retail sales proceeds will go toward Lucara's community-based initiatives in the African country.The move comes amid Louis Vuitton's increased focused on jewelry, with the French brand hiring two former Tiffany & Co. executives - designer Francesca Amfitheatrof and marketing expert Catherine Lacaze - in the past two years. Its parent company, LVMH, which also owns Bulgari, is in the process of acquiring Tiffany for $16.2 million.Lucara discovered the rough at its Karowe mine in April 2019, declaring it to be the largest diamond in Botswana's history, surpassing the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona it extracted at the same deposit in 2015. The company called the stone Sewel??, meaning "rare find" in the local Setswana language, following a public naming contest. Image: The Sewel?? diamond. (Louis Vuitton)