VIPs Get an Opportunity to Customize a Piece of 549-Carat Rough Diamond

Luxury brand Louis Vuitton is taking the concept of bespoke opulence to a whole new level. By securing the rights to represent Lucara's 549-carat "Sethunya" diamond, the retailer can offer its discriminating clients a unique opportunity to design the gem of their dreams, down to the exact shape and carat weight.

"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," noted a Lucara press release.

Back in February of 2020, Lucara Diamond Corp. announced that it had recovered a massive white diamond of “exceptional purity” from its Karowe mine in Botswana — a mine that has earned worldwide recognition for producing the 1,758-carat Sewelô, the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona and the 813-carat Constellation diamond.

The 549-carat diamond was given the name Sethunya, which means "flower" in Setswana, the primary language spoken where the diamond was recovered.

In the three-way collaboration among Lucara, Louis Vuitton, and HB Antwerp, the latter will provide state-of-the-art scanning and planning technology to determine the number and size of diamonds that can be derived from the stone.

This is the second time Louis Vuitton has entered an agreement with Lucara to secure a huge rough stone. In January of 2020, the Paris-based retailer purchased the 1,758-carat Sewelô diamond, also from the Karowe mine.

Town and Country reported that the retailer will be taking both stones on a worldwide promotional tour, during which VIP clients will get a closeup look at the Sethunya and Sewelô diamonds and consult with cutting experts.

Sethunya is the fourth-largest diamond ever recovered from the prolific Karowe mine. It was cherry-picked from Lucara’s MDR (Mega Diamond Recovery) XRT circuit, a system that uses advanced technology to identify 100-carat-plus diamonds by monitoring the rocky material for X-ray luminescence, atomic density and transparency. Previously, large diamonds might have been mistaken as worthless ore and pulverized during the primary crushing process.

Credit: Photo by Philippe Lacombe, courtesy of Louis Vuitton (CNW Group/Lucara Diamond Corp.).