Bling Biz- The Lovely Lesotho

The Lesotho Promise

From WWD.

MONTE CARLO, Monaco — British jewelry firm Graff on Thursday unveiled what it’s billing as one of the most important diamond necklaces ever assembled.

The Lesotho Promise, a 223.35-carat necklace, is made up of 26 white D-flawless diamonds, the most valuable on the grading system. All 26 were extracted from the 15th largest rough diamond ever found, a 603-carat stone discovered in a mine in Lesotho, South Africa, last year.

The Promise is the culmination of 18 months of painstaking work in the company’s diamond-cutting facility in Antwerp, Belgium, a process Graff is retelling in a documentary and a book.

While the 26 stones forming the necklace had an estimated value of $50 million, executives wouldn’t disclose the asking price for the finished piece, revealing only that several buyers had already been turned down before it was officially unveiled. “We’re still waiting,” said Laurence Graff, Graff’s chairman and founder. One client’s offer was too low, while another had proposed buying half. “We’ll never split the stones,” Graff insisted.

If you have to ask the price...you can't afford it.