The biggest uncut diamond to be discovered in over a century failed to sell at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday, but the chief executive of Lucara Diamond Corp, the company that found the gem, said there was interest from buyers in the diamond trade.
Bids for the 1,109-carat, tennis ball-sized stone topped out at US$61 million – an amount that fell short of the undisclosed minimum reserve price.
Sotheby’s had estimated that the diamond, found last November at Lucara’s mine in Botswana, would sell for more than US$70 million.
“The fact that the stone didn’t sell, yes, it is disappointing but it doesn’t change anything for Lucara as a company,” Lucara CEO William Lamb said in a telephone interview from London.
“There is definitely demand for the stone. It is just demand from the people who we would normally sell the stone to,” he said. (Reuters)
