Regent Diamond

The Regent Diamond is a diamond owned by the French state and on display in the Louvre. In 1698 a slave found the 410 carat (82 g) uncut diamond in Kollur mine (in Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh, India) and hid it inside a large wound in his leg. An English sea captain stole the diamond from the slave, killed him and sold it to an Indian merchant. Thomas Pitt, the Governor of Fort St. George, acquired it from a merchant in Madras in 1701, so it is sometimes also known as the Pitt Diamond. Thomas Pitt had the diamond cut in London, by the diamond cutter Harris, between 1704 and 1706. The cutting took two years and cost about £5,000