9. The 603-carat Lesotho Promise diamond
Despite being eight times smaller than the UK, the Kingdom of Lesotho has a history of producing large diamonds of unusually high quality. In August 2006, Gem Diamonds revealed that it had discovered a 603-carat diamond at the Letšeng mine. A diamond of exceptional size as well as top D and type IIa colour. At the time of its discovery, it was the largest diamond find of the century.
It was named Lesotho Promise and was sold to Graff for $12.36 million. The jeweler's cutting and polishing division, SAFDICO, began its conversion. The result was 26 polished D Flawless diamonds, including a stunning 76.41-carat pear-shaped diamond. All 26 diamonds were set into the unique, striking Lesotho Promise necklace designed by Graff.
10. The 581-carat Wynn diamond.
The 581-carat Wynn diamond was an alluvial diamond discovered in 2002 in the Amazon River in Brazil. It was expertly cut and polished in Antwerp, resulting in a magnificent 230 carat pear-shaped H-coloured, VS1 clarity stone, which Steve Wynn bought in 2007. Wynn, the creator of some of Las Vegas' most iconic casinos, reportedly set the stone in an incredible Cartier diamond necklace.
In 2012, there was a whiff of scandal around this big stone. Court documents filed in February that year claimed that the necklace had been the subject of a failed auction in 2011. Los Angeles diamond dealer Diane Breitman, known as the Queen of Diamonds, claimed that Wynn had asked her to sell his namesake diamond at a private auction in Las Vegas and that a Texas dealer named Brett Stettner had agreed to pay $23.5 million for it. When negotiations broke down after the auction, Wynn canceled the sale. Leaving the Queen of Diamonds to try to sue for what she believed was a $1 million commission shortfall.
11. The 552-carat Diavik diamond.
Close to the Arctic Circle, Canada's Diavik mine is located in one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. Yet it has emerged as one of the world's leading sources of gem-quality diamonds.
In 2018, a game-changing stone was discovered at the mine: a yellow diamond weighing a whopping 552 carats. As big as a chicken egg, it was the largest diamond ever discovered in North America. It became a major milestone for the Canadian diamond industry, which is playing an increasingly important role in diamond production worldwide.
Dominion, which owns the mine, announced that it did not intend to sell the rough diamond. Instead, it cut the stone into seven diamonds, which were auctioned off at Christie's in New York in 2021. The largest of the gemstones, named Dancing Sun, is a 204.36-carat fancy yellow diamond of intense color. During the auction it sold for 4.95 million euros.
12. The 550-carat Letšeng Star.
Another top 15 diamond discovered in the tiny state of Lesotho is the 550-carat Letšeng Star. It was named to denote the growing number of “stars” - impressive carat-weight diamonds - that have emerged from the prolific Letšeng mine in the Maluti Mountains.
The rough diamond was discovered in August 2011 by Gem Diamonds. They sold it to diamond dealer Laurence Graff, who used the skills of Graff's expert diamond cutters to process the stone in-house. The result was a wonderful collection of D Flawless stones. It included 12 identical pairs of pear-shaped diamonds, along with the main stone: a stunning 33-carat pear-shaped diamond.
13. A 549-carat diamond from Botswana.
In February 2020, Lucara Diamond Corporation announced the discovery of a 549-carat diamond at the Karowe mine in Botswana. The diamond was from the same ore block as Lesedi La Rona and The Constellation. Like these other world-renowned diamonds, e is an extremely pure, high-value Type IIa diamond.
In the same year Louis Vuitton bought the stone and showed a desire to be a serious player in diamond jewellery. But the fashion house had already bought Lucara's 1,758-carat Sewelô diamond, which tops this list, in 2020. At the time, he said he planned to offer the rough stone to the wishes of some very special clients. So he made a partnership with Belgian cutter HB Antwerp to offer bespoke cuts for his VIPs.
14. The 507-carat Cullinan Heritage diamond.
The Cullinan mine in South Africa is known for mining some of the most spectacular diamonds in history. Including the largest gem-quality diamond, the 3,106.75-carat Cullinan diamond discovered in 1905. On 24 September 2009, South African Heritage Day, another major discovery was made at the mine.
This time, they found a flawless 507-carat rough diamond. They named it Cullinan Heritage in recognition of the timing of its discovery. In February 2010, the chicken-egg sized diamond broke the price record for a rough diamond. When it was sold at auction for $35.3 million at the Chinese jeweler Chow Tai Fook.
In three years the rough diamond was cut and processed into smaller stones. The largest of these was a 104-carat D-color internally flawless round brilliant-cut diamond. These stones were then entrusted to master jeweler Wallace Chan. He set them all in a Heritage in Bloom necklace, which was inspired by flowers. It was valued at $200 million when it was unveiled in the fall of 2015.
15. The legacy of 493 carat Letšeng.
The mining company Gem Diamonds has discovered the 493-carat rough diamond. It became known as Letšeng Legacy at the prolific Letšeng le Tera mine in the African kingdom of Lesotho in September 2007. In November of that year, the historic stone had already gone up for auction.
The large colorless diamond caused a bidding frenzy, with 11 hopeful diamond dealers competing to win the stone. The winner in the end was famed London jeweller Laurence Graff. He secured the stone through the diamond cutting company SAFDICO for $10.4 million.
Art lover Graff had already made a sort of consumer foray that week. Having the night before submitted his best bids for original works by Andy Warhol and Basquiat to Christie's in New York. They cost him an even more impressive total of $23 million. According to Gem Diamonds, Letšeng Legacy has since been split into 20 smaller diamonds. Graff is known for his love of large stones. He also has several major gemstones on this list, including the Lesedi La Rona, the Peace Diamond, the Lesotho Promise and the Letšeng Star.
It is exciting to think that there may be other epic diamonds hidden deep in the ground, waiting to be found. Only time will tell when the next record-breaking stone will be revealed.
