Botswana Mine Produces Massive Diamonds: The Lucara Diamond Corp didn’t realize that their equipment was breaking up some massive diamonds at their mine in Botswana when they first extracted samples. Now that they’ve rectified the situation, the mine is producing huge diamonds with some regularity, according to CNN:

• The largest stone uncovered at the site, the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona, was sold by Lucara last year for $53 million, or $47,777 a carat. A 373-carat chunk that broke off the Lesedi sold for $17.5 million. […] So far this year, Lucara has found 218 diamonds of more than 10.8 carats at the mine, including four stones of more than 100 carats each, the company said in a statement Thursday. …

Changing Landscapes: The Role of Dealers, Advisors and Auction Houses in the Global Art Market: That’s the title of a panel to be held at Dickinson in New York on Friday, May 4, featuring William O’Reilly, Megan Fox Kelly and Todd Levin. The panel will be moderated by Marion Maneker. Please RSVP to attend. (9am breakfast; 9:30am panel discussion) …

Cheyenne Westphal Talks Up Phillips Hong Kong Prospects: Talking to Enid Tsui at the South China Morning Post, Westphal points out that Phillips sales in Hong Kong are up 13% from 2016:

• “Asian contri­bution to our global sales has gone up tenfold to US$170 million since we started our Hong Kong sales in 2015,” says Westphal. “We now have close to 50 people here.” …

The FBI Have a Chagall But What of the Other 13 Works: In 1988, the apartment of Mr. & Mrs. E.S. Heller was robbed while the couple was on vacation. The thief was a temporary employee with connections to organized crime, the Washington Post says, who got caught trying to sell the work without documentation to a Washington, DC art dealer.

• A feud between the thief and a middleman with ties to Bulgarian mobsters eventually led to the recovery of the 13-by-16-inch painting, one of 14 works stolen in the 1988 heist, the FBI and federal prosecutors said. Because the investigation and efforts to recover the other 13 paintings continue, the suspects were not identified in the court filing, which suggests at least one is cooperating in the case. …

All Art Collectors Say They Love the Art More Than Money Until It Comes Time to Sell: The New York Times magazine touts Sylvio Perlstein, whose collection will be shown at  Hauser + Wirth, as relic of a not-too-distant past: “Money was not interfering,” Mr. Perlstein said on a recent visit to New York, where he maintains an apartment on the Upper East Side. “It was not a business. In the ’80s, everything was almost free. Today it is all about money.”

• A selection of 380 pieces from the Perlstein collection will fill all three floors of the Hauser & Wirth Chelsea gallery in New York from April 26 through July 27. (Nothing is for sale.) Unlike the leading collectors of our day, who hire professionals to track the market as assiduously as hedge fund managers, Mr. Perlstein follows his nose through the bewildering maze of modern art. He says that he pounces when he sees “something not normal.” His collection includes Dada and Surrealism (Max Ernst, Man Ray, Dora Maar, René Magritte, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle); American minimalism and post-minimalism (Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt, Brice Marden, Fred Sandback); and land art (Richard Long, Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Gordon Matta-Clark).