De Beers 28.88ct. Diamond to Hit Auction Block for Nearly $3M

Sotheby’s will auction a 28.88 carat diamond from De Beers’ Jwaneng mine in Botswana, giving it an upper price of $2.8 million.

The stone, named the Jwaneng 28.88, is a round, D-color, internally flawless diamond. It will feature at a jewelry sale on April 23 during the auction house’s Hong Kong luxury week, Sotheby’s said last week.

De Beers’ master cutters took the stone from a 114.83-carat rough diamond to its polished form following months of study and planning, the companies said.

“The Jwaneng 28.88 is a perfect emblem of De Beers’ unmatched legacy in diamonds,” said Quig Bruning, head of jewels for the Americans and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Sotheby’s. “It’s at once a vanishingly rare feat of nature, combined with a master class in diamond-cutting and polishing.”

Prior to the sale, the auction house and the miner debuted the diamond at Maison Assouline in London, to celebrate the launch of De Beers’ A Diamond Is Forever: The Making of a Cultural Icon 1926-2026, which Assouline published.

The celebration included a special exhibition Sophie Oppenheimer curated as well as a viewing of special pieces from De Beers London, charting the stylistic history of diamond jewelry over the century. 

Image: The Jwaneng 28.88 diamond. (De Beers)