Laurence Graff

Laurence Graff (born 13 June 1938) is an English jeweller. He is best known as a supplier of unique jewellery and rare jewels to the wealthy. In 2008, he bought the Wittelsbach Diamond for £16.4 million ($24.3 million). He recut the diamond, removing and receiving criticism for altering the historic jewel.
In 2010 he set a record for the highest price ever paid for a jewel at auction, $46 million dollars/£29m, for a pink diamond. Graff is estimated to be worth US$4.3 billion as of 2013.

Personal life
Graff was born in Stepney in 1938 into a Jewish family, the son of a Romanian mother, Rebecca Segal, and a Russian father, Harry Graff. His father made suits off the Commercial Road while his mother ran a tobacconist and newsagents. His brother Raymond was born in 1947.

Career
Graff left school and became an apprentice when he was 15 cleaning floors and toilets. He was fired from that job after three months and went into partnership with Schindler, a jeweller, repairing rings and creating small pieces of jewellery in a small shop. That shop went out of business and so Graff began selling his jewellery designs independently to jewellers all over England. By 1962, he had two jewellery shops, including his first in Hatton Garden - the centre of London's jewellery trade since medieval times.

In 1960, he founded the Graff Diamonds company. In 1972 Janine Paule from Diversity Jewellery Ltd used to carry diamonds in small wax packets from Howard Taylor, a jobbing jeweller in Hatton Garden to Graff. This was so the right diamond could be selected for a particular gold ring. By 1974, he had begun specializing in selling to newly rich buyers from the Middle East. In particular, he supplied many jewels for Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei who became a lifelong client and friend. One day Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz walked into the shop and bought everything including a 14 carat diamond. Graff is currently expanding his empire in North Africa and the Gulf.

Re-cut of the Wittelsbach Diamond
In 2008, Graff purchased the Wittelsbach Diamond for £16.4 million, a considerable premium over the £9 million guide price. Almost two years later, Graff revealed he had had three diamond cutters repolish the stone to eliminate the chips and improve the clarity, reducing the diamond from convert|35.52|carat|g to convert|31|carat|g. This action has been compared by critics to making the Mona Lisa prettier. However, according to gemologist Richard W. Wise, 'At a cost of only 4.45 carats the recut and renamed Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond has been raised from a GIA grade of Fancy Deep Grayish Blue to a Fancy Deep Blue. Its clarity grade has been likewise elevated from VS2 to Internally Flawless (IF). This is a substantial upgrade.' Further, the 'Graff recut retained the original double stellate brilliant facet pattern thus retaining the overall look of the original stone.' The renamed Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond and the Hope Diamond will be on display together at the Smithsonian Institution beginning the end of January 2010.

Personal life
In 1962, he married Anne-Marie Graff of French origin. They have three children: Francois (b. 1967), who runs the London branch of his father’s company, Stephane (b. 1968), an artist, and a daughter Kristelle (b. 1980). Graff also fathered a child with jeweller Josephine Daniel, 34 years his junior, in 2009.