Louis Vuitton has made a splash as it showed off its latest purchase: the world’s second-largest rough diamond.
The LVMH-owned brand, which announced last week that it was the new owner of the 1,758-carat Sewelô, displayed the glinting, blackened stone at its Place Vendôme store in Paris.
The company has not revealed how much it paid for the diamond, which is as large as a tennis ball and covered in carbon.
The Sewelô, which means “rare find” in Setswana, was discovered in Botswana last year. It will be cut into gems and turned into a collection of fine jewellery, according to Lucara, a Canada-based company that owns the mine where the stone was found.
Louis Vuitton, better known for its handbags, entered the fine jewellery market in 2012 where it competes with Bulgari, also owned by LVMH, and Richemont’s Cartier.
High-end jewellers are displaying their wares in the French capital during haute couture fashion week. Items in such jewellery collections can cost tens of thousands of pounds.
Jewellery has become one of the fastest-growing divisions in the luxury goods sector, spurring LVMH’s $16.2bn (£12.4bn) purchase of the US brand Tiffany last year.
Kering, the owner of Gucci, also announced last year it would enter the high-end jewellery market.
