网球大小的钻石原石公开拍卖

The world’s largest uncut diamond is about to be sold in a most uncommon way.

世界上最大的钻石原石即将以一种极不寻常的方式出售。

The tennis ball-size gem — a 1,109-carat white diamond discovered last fall in the Lucara mine in South Africa — will be up for bid Wednesday evening in a public auction at Sotheby’s in London.

这颗网球大小的宝石——去年秋天在卢卡拉钻石公司(Lucara)的南非钻石矿发现的一颗1109克拉的白钻——将于周三晚上在伦敦的一场苏富比(Sotheby’s)公开拍卖会上拍卖。

Normally such stones are offered to a handful of sophisticated dealers in the diamond industry, who study the diamond for weeks to determine how many cut stones the rough will yield. After figuring how much those stones will be worth, they submit a sealed bid to the mining company.

通常，这样的宝石会推荐给钻石产业内少数几位经验老道的交易商，他们会花几周时间进行研究，判断原石经过切割可以得出多少颗钻石。在估算出这些宝石的价值后，他们会给矿业公司一个密封报价。

The Sotheby’s auction represents a break with tradition that aims to take advantage of wealthy individuals’ desire for trophy objects, whether homes, art or jewels. Often they buy in ways that allow them to make the purchases anonymously.

苏富比的拍卖会是对这一传统的背离，为的是迎合富有的个人利用物品来彰显成功的意愿，不管这物品是房屋、艺术品还是珠宝。通常这些富人会通过那些可以保持匿名的方式进行购买。

The auction comes at a time when large cut diamonds have fetched record prices on the block: In May, the Oppenheimer Blue, a 14.62-carat stone that was said to have been the favorite of diamond millionaire Philip Oppenheimer — whose family once owned the diamond mining company De Beers — fetched a record $57.5 million at auction. That sale came a day after a 15.38-carat pink cut diamond fetched a record price of $31.6 million.

经过加工的大型钻石目前正在卖出创纪录的价格：5月，重14.62克拉的奥本海默之蓝(Oppenheimer Blue)在拍卖会上创出5750万美元的成交价纪录，此钻据说是钻石富翁菲利普·奥本海默(Philip Oppenheimer)的最爱，他所在的家族曾经拥有钻石开采公司戴比尔斯(De Beers)。而此前一天，一颗15.38克拉的粉钻刚刚创下3160万美元的纪录。

“So why not stick with that strategy?” said William Lamb, chief executive of the Lucara Diamond Corp., explaining the decision to sell a rough stone under an auctioneer’s hammer.

“那么，为什么不坚持那个策略呢？”卢卡拉钻石集团首席执行官威廉·兰卜(William Lamb)在解释将原石公开拍卖的原因时说。

Underscoring the appeal of large stones, Lucara sold a rough diamond weighing 813 carats privately in May for $63 million, or a record of about $77,500 a carat.

卢卡拉在5月曾通过私下交易的方式，以6300万美元的价格出售了一颗813克拉的原石，创下每克拉约7.75万美元的纪录，愈发突显大型宝石的魅力。

But the diamond boom is a high-end phenomenon. Per-carat prices for smaller stones have been declining — yet another indication of how the differential in wealth between the 1 percent and everyone else is affecting buying patterns in the world’s economy.

然而钻石热是一个高端市场现象。体积较小的宝石，每克拉的价格是在下降的——这再一次表明在全球经济中，1%阶层和其他人的财富差距对购买行为产生了怎样的影响。

Prices for 1-carat polished stones have declined 4 percent in the last year because of a strengthening dollar and economic challenges faced by some of the pivotal consuming economies, noted Anish Aggarwal, a partner at Gemdax, a strategic consulting firm in the diamond industry.

钻石产业策略咨询公司Gemdax合伙人安尼施·阿加瓦尔(Anish Aggarwal)说，由于美元的坚挺，加之一些重要消费经济体面临经济困难，经过打磨的一克拉钻石的价格在去年下降了4%。

This is not the first time Sotheby’s has put a rough stone up for sale. In 2000, it put a purple-pink rough 12.49-carat diamond up for auction, but it failed to sell, according to Sotheby’s.

这并非苏富比首次拍卖钻石原石。该拍卖行称其在2000年曾上拍一颗12.49克拉的紫粉钻原石，但没能成交。

Whoever buys the Lucara stone will pay Sotheby’s a 12 percent fee, known as the buyer’s premium, on the hammer price for anything over the first $3 million, and a higher percentage of the first $3 million. Although there is a reserve price below which Lucara would not sell, that figure is not public. And of course, the hammer price does not include whatever the buyer would have to pay to have the stone cut, should he or she decide to do so.

无论最终是谁买下这颗宝石，都需要向苏富比支付一笔叫做“买家佣金”的费用，落槌价超过300万美元后费率为12%，最初的300万美元费率还要更高。卢卡拉设定了保留价，低于此价格将不会出售，但这是个不公开的数字。当然，如果买家决定把钻石切开，拍卖的落槌价中是不包括加工费用的。

Top auction houses are eager to have high-quality objects for sale because doing so burnishes their images and appeals to a wealthy global audience. That may mean Lucara has negotiated privately to receive some of the buyer’s premium.

顶级拍卖行都渴望出售高品质的物品，因为这有益于提升它们的形象，吸引全球富人的瞩目。这意味着卢卡拉可能私下和苏富比有约定，可以得到买家佣金的提成。

The Lucara diamond — named the Lesedi La Rona, or “our light” in Setswana, in a contest in which 11,000 people submitted entries — is not the biggest diamond ever found. That distinction goes to the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, discovered at a mine in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1905. It was named for Thomas Cullinan, the chairman of the mining company.

这颗卢卡拉钻石名为“Lesedi La Rona”，在茨瓦纳语是“我们的光芒”的意思。这个名字来自有1.1万人参与的征名活动。但它并非迄今找到的最大的钻石。1905年在南非比勒陀利亚的一座矿中找到的卡利南钻石重达3106克拉，至今占据第一的位置。钻石的名字来自矿业公司董事长托马斯·卡利南(Thomas Cullinan)。

It was ultimately cut into nine discrete stones, of which the largest was the 530-carat Cullinan I, or Great Star of Africa. Four years after the discovery, the Cullinan I and Cullinan II were presented to King Edward VII in a ceremony at Windsor Castle. Later, the Cullinan I was placed in the monarch’s scepter. The remaining stones are scattered throughout the royal collection.

最终它被切成了九颗钻石，其中最大的是530克拉的卡利南一号，即“大非洲之星”。发现原石四年后，卡利南一号和二号在温莎堡的一场仪式上被进献给爱德华七世。卡利南一号后来镶嵌在了英王权杖上。其他的卡利南钻石则散布在英国王室的珠宝收藏之中。

Martin Rapaport, whose Rapaport Group is an important source of information on diamond pricing, said the decision to auction an uncut stone would prove to be a savvy one.

马丁·雷帕波特(Martin Rapaport)说，公开拍卖原石应该是一个明智的决定。他的雷柏帕特集团(Rapaport Group)在钻石定价领域是一个重要信息源。

“If Lucara believed that the optimum way to maximize value was through consumer distribution, then the diamond would have been cut,” he said. “People with tremendous amounts of money are looking for a home for it. That is fueling the prices we are seeing for diamonds.”

“如果卢卡拉认为通过消费分销的形式可以将原石的价值最大化，那它就会被切开，”他说。“一些非常富有的人正在为其财富物色贮存之地。这一点推高了过往一些钻石的价格。”