Diamonds are forever. Or so indicate international auctions that continue to sell the gems for record prices.
Two auction houses set new records this month for their sale of two rare diamonds, just days apart, in Geneva.
On November 13, the auction house Sotheby’s sold an oval, pink diamond for US$83.02 million – much higher than the $61m it was estimated to fetch. The 59.60-carat diamond, known as the Pink Star and mounted as a ring, is now the most expensive gemstone to be sold at auction, according to Reuters.
Previously, the title was held by Graff Pink, a 24.78-carat diamond bought by the London-based jeweller Laurence Graff for $45.75m in 2010.
While Sotheby’s did not have the exact origins of the Pink Star, it revealed De Beers mined it somewhere in Africa in 1999.
Just a day earlier, and also in Geneva, Christie’s International sold a pear-shaped orange diamond for $36m, much higher than its estimated $20m. At 14.82 carats, the cost per carat came to $2.4m, making it the highest per-carat price for a coloured diamond at a public auction.
The previous orange diamond to hit the headlines was the Pumpkin Diamond in 1997, fetching $1.3m at a Sotheby’s auction, according to Bloomberg. The buyer was Ronald Winston, a son of the American jeweller Harry Winston.
Other pieces that went under the hammer that night include a collection of brooches and bangles by the jewellers René Boivin, Van Cleef and Arpels and Fulco di Verdura belonging to fashion icon Hélène Rochas, who died in 2011. It sold for $2.3m.
Meanwhile, the Pink Star sale was part of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels Auction in Geneva, which in total fetched $199.5m. The lot also included Van Cleef and Arpels’ Walska Briolette Diamond brooch from 1971. The Phoenix-shaped piece of jewellery is set with emeralds, diamonds and sapphires, and fetched 9.68 million Swiss francs (Dh39m).
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