One of the world’s largest diamonds has been sold for $6.5 million. The stone has been dubbed the “peace diamond” because much of the proceeds will go to help the village in Sierra Leone where it was found. In the past, the illegal trade in “blood diamonds” was used to help fund the country’s devastating civil war and other African conflicts. Rather than sell the peace diamond to smugglers, the villagers brought it to the attention of the national government, which arranged for it to be auctioned. One of the world’s biggest luxury jewelers, Laurence Graff, won the bidding in New York on Monday. The final price is hardly a paltry sum, but it falls short of what the Sierra Leonean government hoped the 709-carat gem might raise. The stone is the third largest diamond in the country’s history and the 14th biggest ever discovered worldwide, according to the Rapaport Group, the jewelry organization that helped bring the stone to auction. In the past, similar sized rough diamonds have sold for almost 10 times as much.
Source link
