Largest pink diamond found in 300 years
With 34 grams of weight, something that in another field sounds insignificant, a rare pink diamond has been cataloged as the largest that has been discovered in the last 300 years.
The 170-carat stone has been named Lulo Rose, after the mine in Angola, southern Africa, where it was found.
It is believed to be the largest pink diamond mined since the 185-carat Daria-i-Noor, which was mined from a larger stone and is now among the Iranian crown jewels.
The Lulo Rose is a type 2a diamond, which means it has little to no impurities.
“Being a record, this spectacular pink diamond mined from Lulo shows that Angola remains a major player on the world stage,” said Diamantino Azevedo, Angola’s minister of mineral resources.
How much does it cost?
Diamonds similar to the Lulo Rose have sold for tens of millions of dollars in the past.
One known as the Pink Star sold at auction in Hong Kong for $71.2 million in 2017.
But it’s impossible to speculate on the monetary value of the Lulo Rose until it’s cut, said Joanna Hardy, an independent fine jewelry specialist.
Pink diamonds are extremely rare, but the same physical attributes that make them rare also make them very hard and difficult to shape.
Hardy said the stone is unlikely to end up in the public eye, or even auctioned off, as retailers have customers waiting to snap up such a rare find.
The largest known pink diamond is the Daria-i-Noor, discovered in India, which experts believe was cut from an even larger stone.
The largest rough diamond of any color ever recorded is the Cullinan diamond, found in South Africa in 1905.
Weighing 3,107 carats, which is more than half a kilo, it was cut into 105 different stones.
The largest of these, the Cullinan I, is the world’s largest clear-cut diamond and is part of the United Kingdom’s crown jewels.
