Rare 18-carat pink diamond sells for $28.8m at auction

Vivid 'Fortune Pink' diamond was mined in Brazil more than 15 years ago

A rare 18-carat, pear-shaped pink diamond was sold at a Geneva auction on Tuesday for 28.4 million Swiss francs ($28.8m), including fees and taxes — a price at the lower end of the expected range.

Said to be the largest of its kind and shape to go up for auction, the “Fortune Pink” vivid pink stone headlined Christie’s latest Geneva sale of jewellery. It had been expected to fetch between $25m and $35m.

An unidentified buyer in Asia snapped up the diamond, said the auction house.

Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewellery department in Geneva, said the stone with a strong, saturated pink colour was mined in Brazil more than 15 years ago.

He declined to identify its owner, but described the diamond as “a true miracle of nature”.

Christie’s says the first pink diamonds ever recorded were found in India’s Golconda mines in the 16th century, before others turned up over the centuries in places such as Africa, Australia, Brazil and Russia.

The pink stone’s auction followed a showroom tour in New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan before its arrival in Geneva.

Diamonds are forever — in pictures

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  A 170 carat pink diamond - nicknamed The Lulo Rose – has been mined in north-eastern Angola. AFP

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  The gemstone was unearthed at the Lulo mine in Angola's diamond-rich region. AFP

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  A Sotheby's employee shows The Pink Star diamond weighing 59.6 carats, the most valuable diamond ever to be sold at auction. AP

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  The Pink Star was sold in Hong Kong in 2017 for $71.2 million. AFP

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  An estimated 7-carat diamond was found in March 2013 near an undisclosed Angolan village not far from the Congolese border. Getty

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  Miner carries bags filled with excess earth in 2013 to expose the diamond-rich layers near the undisclosed village in Angola. Getty

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  Miners toiled at the Angolan site around the clock in March 2013, in a bid to unearth valuable diamonds. Getty

Managing director Tobias Kormind of 77 Diamonds, an online jeweller, called the sale price disappointing.

“The extraordinary Fortune Pink diamond sold in Geneva, with its auspicious 18.18 carat weight, which signifies prosperity in Asia, sadly didn’t bring the luck or uplift in fortunes many had hoped for,” he said.

Hexagonal space diamonds found on Earth — in pictures

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  Monash University Professor Andy Tomkins, left, with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology PhD student Alan Salek study a ureilite meteor sample at an RMIT facility in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: RMIT University

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  Images of graphite, lonsdaleite, and diamond in ureilites. Photo: RMIT university

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  Prof Dougal McCulloch, left, Mr Salek from RMIT and Mr Tomkins from Monash, right, look at computer images of the meteor samples. Photo: RMIT University

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  An uncut 1,109-carat diamond named 'Lesedi La Rona' at Sotheby's auction house in London. AFP

He suggested the result could be a reflection of a “shaky global economy” and other financial factors, which have been “giving rise to worries creeping in, even among the top echelon of wealthy buyers”.

The auction comes six months after Christie’s sold “The Rock” — a 228-carat, egg-sized white diamond billed as the largest of its kind to go up for auction — for more than $21.75m, including fees. That was also at the low end of the expected range.

1,086 carat diamond — in pictures

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  A rare 1,086-carat rough diamond was sold at a Dubai auction this week. The colour is the result of the stone being not one crystal, but several merged together. Some of them are darker than others and therefore give a yellow-orange glow. All photos: DMCC

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  The diamond is a yellow-orange shade but it is not known what colour it will be after it is polished.

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  Diamond experts say it is a 'very speculative stone and it will be up to the buyers to try to unravel what polished outcomes will be possible'.

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  It is the largest good quality rough diamond to be sold at the Dubai Diamond Exchange.