The world's largest flawless diamond weighing over 300 carats is set to fetch at least £13million.
Named the Golden Canary due to its deep yellow colour, the pear-shaped jewel went on public display in Dubai yesterday and will be auctioned by Sotheby's in December.
It was found hidden in a pile of rubble in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1980s by a young girl playing in her uncle's garden.
The land was close to a diamond mine but had been disregarded due to the belief there were no deposits there.
The rough diamond weighed a whopping 890 carat is one of the largest ever discovered.
It took almost five years to cut into 15 separate stones - the largest of which weighed 407.5 and was named the Incomparable Diamond.
The Incomparable Diamond became the largest flawless or internally flawless diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America and went on display at various exhibitions.
Yellow diamonds make up just .006% of all mined diamonds and of these only a tiny percentage will be internally flawless.
Recently, however, the owner made the bold decision to recut the jewel to enhance its colour and vibrancy and and renamed it the Golden Canary, reports The National News.
Sophie Stevens, director specialist of jewellery at Sotheby's Dubai, said : "It is still obviously internally flawless, but now we have this brighter, really golden colour.
"The outline is so much more beautiful, and the colour is deeper.
"And these days, we are very lucky that we don’t just have to rely on human expertise, we have this fantastic computer technology that can really look into the stone and tell us the best way to cut it to get those brilliant qualities emerging."
The Golden Canary is currently on display at Sotheby's Dubai gallery in DIFC, but leaves for a tour tomorrow.
It will stop off in Taipei, Geneva, and Hong Kong before ending up in New York where it will be auctioned at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction on December 7.
There is no reserve and bids will start at $1, but the diamond is expected to fetch at least £13million.
The decision to offer the diamond without a reserve price is very deliberate, said Sophie, as it gets people excited and creates fiercely competitive bidding.
She added that at a time when the world looks "a little unsteady in several areas" people will look towards tangible assets, such as diamonds, so expects the jewel to be very popular with buyers.
