Fifty Million Dollar Necklace Unveiled

British jewelry firm Graff has unveiled the Lesotho Promise, a 223.5-carat necklace decked with 26 white D-flawless diamonds. It’s been tagged ‘the most important diamond necklace ever assembled’, and… I believe it.

Graff says all 26 diamonds were cut from a 603-carat stone found in a mine in Lesotho in South Africa. It took one and a half years to create the Promise to perfection at the diamond-cutting facility in Antwerp, Belgium. Graff put the Lesotho Promise on display at the Salle d’Empire at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo, Monaco. The centerpiece of the necklace, the one that makes one breathless, is a 100-carat pear-shaped D-flawless diamond.

The price? Though estimated at a ‘mere’ $50 million, Graff would not reveal the asking price. The clientele? Probably Russian billionaires or oil tycoons or business magnates, but the company did say that several potential buyers have been turned down. Some proposed buying half the necklace.

Obviously, Graff isn’t interested.

“We’ll never split the stones,” said Lawrence Graff, Graff’s chairman and founder. “We’re still waiting.”

Wonder if he’ll wait until I can raise that kind of cash from Adsense?