Photo by Donald Bowers/Getty Images for Sotheby’s

From the New York Times, June 27, 2016:

In the fall of 2015, a 1,109 carat white diamond was found in the Lucara mine in South Africa. The diamond is called the Lesedi La Rona, which means “Our Light” in Setswana. On Wednesday, June 29, 2016 it will go up for public auction at Sotheby’s in London. Usually, precious stones like these are sold secretly by sealed bids and kept anonymous, so this Sotheby’s auction is unusual. This is the first time that such a large diamond has been on sale publicly.

The Lesedi La Rona is a type IIA diamond, which is very rare and is the most chemically pure type of diamond. Other famous IIA diamonds include the Koh-i-Noor and the Cullinan, which is 3,106 carats and is the biggest diamond ever found. The Cullinan was cut into 9 different stones and the pieces are now owned by various monarchs. Sotheby’s says that “whoever buys the Lucara stone will pay Sotheby’s a 12 percent fee, known as the buyer’s premium, on the hammer price for anything over the first $3 million, and a higher percentage of the first $3 million.” Whoever buys the stone will then have to decide if they want to have it cut. What a hard decision! What would you do?

The whole article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/business/worlds-largest-uncut-diamond-heads-to-auction-a-break-with-tradition.html

UPDATE: It turns out nobody bought the diamond because the bids failed to meet the minimum reserve price. The reserve price was secret (just like at eBay) but it must have been more than £45 million ($61 million) because that was the highest bid. Maybe it will go on sale again later. Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-36660076