A new and efficient methodology has been developed forthe synthesis of -diketones from aromatic -bromo ketonesin the presence of Furukawa reagent under mild conditions.The present transformation is proposed to proceed via aReformatsky-type reaction of -bromo ketones, followed byC-C bond sigmatropic rearrangement of the aldolate intermediate to give -diketones in moderate to good isolatedyields, while aliphatic -bromomethyl ketones resulted inthe formation of 2,4-disubstituted furans or
cis-1,2-disubstituted cyclopropanols in moderate yields. The scope of thisprocess was investigated, and a tentative mechanism wasproposed.