This past April at the Karowe mine in Botswana, in an open pit sliced hundreds of metres into the earth’s crust, the mining company Lucara recovered a 1,758-carat rough diamond — the second-largest found in a century. Louis Vuitton, the 166-year-old French luxury house known for its leather handbags and the jewel of Bernard Arnault’s €215bn luxury goods empire, has emerged as the surprise buyer. Its purchase by Louis Vuitton signals the house’s growing ambitions in high-end jewellery — a thoroughly fragmented category where, even today, recognisable brands comprise only 20-23 per cent of the market, according to analysts
SOURCE: THE FINANCIAL TIMES