World’s second-largest diamond sold after two-year search for buyer

Canada-based Lucara Diamond disclosed the sale in its second-quarter results released Aug. 7, with Motswedi included in the company’s $41 million revenue for the quarter, Business Insider Africa reported.

Lucara has not identified the buyer or disclosed how much the diamond sold for.

The sale ends a lengthy effort to find a buyer for a stone whose exceptional size and rarity made it difficult to value through conventional methods.

Lucara recovered Motswedi from its Karowe mine in Botswana, Africa, in August 2024. The diamond was initially reported to weigh 2,492 carats but lost a small amount during cleaning, a common occurrence for stones of this size, according to National Jeweler.

Former Botswanas President Mokgweetsi Masisi looks at a large diamond discovered in Botswana at his office in Gaborone on August 22, 2024. Photo by AFP

The Gemological Institute of America classified Motswedi as the second-largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered, behind only the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa in 1905.

Lucara held a public naming contest for the diamond in late 2024, with "Motswedi" selected as the winning name. The Setswana term refers to a current of underground water that rises to the surface.

Finding a buyer proved difficult because diamonds of this size are exceptionally rare, leaving few comparable stones that can be used to determine their value. Selling such a diamond also requires decisions over how it could eventually be cut and polished.

Motswedi remained unsold into 2026. Lucara listed it in its inventory as of Dec. 31, 2025, and said in its first-quarter 2026 report that the stone had yet to be sold.

The new owner could cut Motswedi into multiple polished diamonds or preserve the rough stone intact as a collector's or museum piece.