Looking for the ultimate Christmas gift and have more than a half million to spare?

Head down to Lugaro Jewellers at Mayfair Shopping Centre, where the largest pink diamond ever unearthed from a Canadian mine is on display — and for sale at $538,000.

"It's a piece of history and a piece of art ... truely a rare and unique piece," said store manager Krikor Kuspekian. "The chances of finding another such diamond is extremely rare."

The pink diamond, discovered in the DeBeers-owned Victor Mine in Northern Ontario two years ago, is 2.74 karats with natural, light-pink colouring and cut in oval. It was set in a ring of platinum and 18-karat white gold and surrounded by smaller pink and white diamonds by reknowned U.S. desiner Simon G.

The diamond was cut and polished in Ontario, and has S1 clarity, according to the grade report issued by the Gemological Institute of America and Birks & Mayors.

The ring had been on display at Birks in downtown Toronto and recently acquired by Lugaro from the miner. The asking price was $430,000. It has been appraised at $568,000.

Lugaro Jewellers is based in Vancouver and bills itself as the coutnry's leading Canadian diamond retailer. It operates manufacturing facilities in Burnaby and Montreal and has two retail stores in Vancouver and another at Mayfair.

The Victor pink diamond is making the rounds at all three retail outlets and will be at Mayfair Mall until Dec. 7, said marketing manager Marina Shaforost.

Asked if a buyer may emerge here, she said "you never know. There are lots of collectors here."

Shaforost added the store is equippped with a "high level" of security.

Canada is currently the world's third largest producer of diamonds after Russia and Botswana.

There are five mines operating in Canada, all in the Northwest Territories except for the Victor mine,

Pink diamonds are usually found in Australia, which makes the Canadian find a rare event. The Victor mine is Ontario's first diamond play and is considered one of the richest yet.

Victor opened in 2008 and quickly become known for the quality of its diamonds.

"What is extraordinary about the Victor mine is that 85 per cent of the stones are gem-quality, that is, they are commercially viable to be cut and polished as jewels, as opposed to 35 or 40 per cent, max, at most other mines," said Ron Gashinski, Ontario's chief gemologist and director of the mines and minerals division of the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry.

The market appears to agree. Victor diamonds are commanding high prices - on average, $500 a carat - as opposed to $175 to $200 a carat for stones coming from Canada's other diamond mines in the North West Territories and $80 to $100 a carat, on average, from other diamond mines around the world, according to the Ontario ministry.

The Victor mine got its start in 1987 when a student geologist working in the James Bay Lowlands stumbled on a kimberlite rock. De Beers eventually discovered 18 kimberlite pipes, 16 of which were diamondiferous, including the Victor site which proved economically viable to justify the $1-billion investment necessary to build the mine.

dkloster@timescolonist.com