Why Lucara tried enticing art buyers to bid for its massive diamond

You don’t win if you don’t play.

That’s the attitude of Lucara Diamond Chief Executive Officer William Lamb after the company went the unusual route of auctioning its latest rock with Sotheby’s.

Lamb says the company’s 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona rough diamond is so unique and “magnificent” that he wanted to test alternative sales methods, including trying to entice high-end art buyers through the legendary auction house.

“There is something to be said about seeing [this] diamond in its rough form,” he told BNN in an interview.

But the company halted the auction after bids failed to meet the company’s unspecified minimum price. Bids got as high as $61 million, plus a 12 per cent buyer’s premium, before the company pulled the plug.

Another reason for the Sotheby’s experiment was a fear of market dilution, said Lamb. Usually, large diamonds are cut into smaller stones and polished for retail or private sales. But the Lesedi La Rona diamond is big enough that creating smaller diamonds from it could have swamped the market, he said.

“That diamond would devalue existing diamonds if it was sold into the polished market,” he said.

Lamb says that he has already been approached by a number of interested parties and that negotiations to sell the diamond will continue.