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Susan Cognetti named secretary of Marywood University Board of Trustees

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Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic welcomes guest artists for night to final Masterworks concert of season at Scranton Cultural Center

<p>LONDON (AP) &#8212; It&#8217;s a rock for the ages.</p><p>A 3-billion-year-old diamond the size of a tennis ball &#8212; the largest discovered in over a century &#8212; could sell for more than $70 million, auctioneer Sotheby&#8217;s said Wednesday.</p><p>The auction house plans to offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on June 29.</p><p>The diamond was unearthed in November in Botswana at a mine owned by Canada&#8217;s Lucara Diamond Corp. It measured 1,109 carats, the second-largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered. Its name means &#8220;our light&#8221; in the Tswana language of southern Africa.</p><p>The auctioneer said the rough gemstone &#8220;of exceptional transparency&#8221; could yield the largest top-quality diamond ever cut and polished.</p><p>David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby&#8217;s jewelry division, called the discovery &#8220;the find of a lifetime&#8221; and the auction unprecedented, because no rough diamond of this size has ever been auctioned.</p><p>&#8220;We put an estimate on it in excess of $70 million, so that is the sort of area we are expecting to go for, but frankly it is difficult to tell &#8212; what is the largest diamond in the world worth?&#8221; he said.</p><p>The Royal Collection Trust, which oversees British royal treasures, said the largest gem-quality diamond ever found was the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, unearthed in South Africa in 1905. It was cut into nine pieces that form part of the U.K. Crown Jewels.</p><p>The Lesedi la Rona could smash the record price for a diamond of $48.5 million, paid at a Geneva sale last year for the 12.03-carat polished &#8220;Blue Moon&#8221; diamond. Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau picked it up as a gift for his 7-year-old daughter.</p><p>The Lesedi la Rona diamond will be on public display at Sotheby&#8217;s in New York on Saturday, and at the auctioneer&#8217;s London showrooms June 18-28.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">A model displays a large diamond at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday, May 4, 2016. The auction house plans to offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on June 29.</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_diamond-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>A model displays a large diamond at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday, May 4, 2016. The auction house plans to offer the Lesedi la Rona diamond in London on June 29.</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

Diamond the size of a tennis ball could fetch $70 million