Louis Vuitton Acquires 549-ct White Diamond From Lucara

Lucara Diamond Corp. entered into an agreement with luxury goods group Louis Vuitton and HB Antwerp, a European diamond manufacturing and technology company, for collaborating on the planning, cutting and polishing of the 549-carat white gem diamond referred to as “Sethunya” meaning “Flower” in Setswana.

Sethunya was recovered unbroken from direct milling of ore sourced from the Karowe mine in February 2020. This agreement builds on the collaboration, announced in January, with Louis Vuitton and HB on the historic 1,758 carat Sewelô, Botswana’s largest diamond, recovered from Karowe last year.

Under the arrangement between Lucara, Louis Vuitton, and HB, the parties will collaborate and plan the creation of the highest value polished diamonds from the 549-carat rough, which will be made available to Louis Vuitton exclusively. Lucara will be paid a purchase price based on the estimated polished outcome, determined by HB’s state-of-the-art scanning and planning technologies, with a true-up paid on the actual achieved polished sales thereafter, less a fee and the cost of manufacturing. Lucara will receive the purchase price based on the polished outcome no later than Q4 2021.

In line with their long tradition of personalisation, Louis Vuitton envisages crafting beautiful, bespoke high value polished stones of variable size and shape fashioned from this rare specimen to the client’s wishes: the ultimate personalised high jewellery experience and the opportunity to create a truly unique gem, a storied family heirloom. In this way, the client will be involved in the creative process of plotting, cutting, polishing, and becoming part of the story that the stone will carry with it into history.

Caption: Lucara’s 549-carat rough diamond. Photo credit: Philippe Lacombe, courtesy of Louis Vuitton

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