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Most valuable necklace
-t; ·
"The Incomparable" contains a 407.48-carat i ,;·
flawless diamond and 102 "satellite"
diamonds. Manufactured by the jewellers
, . Mouawad, based in Switzerland, it
was valued on 13 Feb 2013 at £35 m
($55 m). The flawless diamond was
discovered in the Congo some
30 years ago in a pile of
· · kimberlite, a by-product
of diamond mining, ,
.
. ..,f .
The Incomparable
appeared on eBay
in 2002 with a
starting price of
£15 m but failed
to sell.
The largest ever single rough uncut diamond
was the "Cullinan", which
weighed 3,106.75 carats when
found in 1905 in South Africa. It
was cut into nine smaller diamonds,
the largest of which, the "Great Star of
Africa", weighs 530.2 carats and tops
the royal sceptre (left) wielded by the
UK's Queen Elizabeth II. The next largest
fragment - the "Second Star of Africa" -
sits in the Queen's Imperial State Crown.
On 8 Mar 2012,
Shawish Jewellery
(CHE) unveiled
the first ring to be
made entirely from
a diamond. The
150-carat creation
is reportedly worth
£43.5 m ($70 m).
Rock stars:
diamonds defined
Diamond - the world's hardest natural
substance - is a mineral formed
140-200 km down in the Earth's
mantle. It is a form (allotrope) of the
chemical element carbon (C) in
which the atoms are arranged
in a tetrahedral crystalline
formation. Diamonds are
measured in carats, with
one carat equal to 200 mg.
For each carat of
diamond mined,
250 tonnes of earth
Largest heist: the 90-second break-in
At lunchtime on 28 Jul 2013, an armed
man entered the Carlton International
hotel (right) in Cannes, France. His
target: jewellery worth 103 m euros
(£89 m). He single-handedly pulled off
the biggest diamond heist ever, in just
one-and-a-half minutes. The diamondencrusted
watches, rings and earrings
he stole (left) belonged to Lev Leviev
) - a Soviet-born Israeli diamond and
property mogul -and had been on
display in an exhibition at the hotel.