A 709-carat diamond from Sierra Leone has been sold for more than $6.5 million. That’s like two month’s rent in Manhattan!
According to the Rapaport Group, the rock is the 14th-largest diamond ever discovered. It was sold at international auction in New York to Graff Diamonds, a multinational jeweler based in London. Before you start having flashbacks to Leonardo DiCaprio’s South African accent in Blood Diamond, you should know the “Peace Diamond,” as the Rapport Group has dubbed it, was actually sold by the Sierra Leone government.
The company says its sale “will provide vital lifesaving infrastructure to the area where the diamond was found,” with 59 percent of the money going to the Sierra Leone government, and 26 percent going to artisanal diggers who discovered it in March in Koryardu—a village lacking basic living necessities, including running water and electricity.
The legal owner of the diamond was village Pastor Emmanuel Momoh, who was set on selling the diamond in a way that would serve his community.
