Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Biggest Pink Diamond to Appear at Auction Sells for $17M

The biggest pink diamond ever to appear at auction sold for 17.3 million dollars on Tuesday, after tense bidding at Christie's spring jewelry auction in Hong Kong.
 diamond auction
The stunning diamond was given the name "Martian Pink" by American jeweller Harry Winston to celebrate the first satellite mission to Mars by the US in the same year. In 1976 the 12.04-carat fancy intense pink diamond was purchased by a private collector. Initially expected to sell for around 8-12 million dollars "Martian Pink" blew its presale estimate out of the water.
While most natural pink diamonds have a tinge of purple, grey or orange to them, this stone shows no trace of a secondary color.
The "Martian Pink" diamond is one of the only two significant sized round pink diamonds in the world.
The other is the 23.60-carat Williamson Pink diamond, which was presented to Queen Elizabeth II in 1947 as a wedding gift.

Secondly, a pair of 10.88-carat, D, flawless brilliant-cut diamonds sold to an asian private for $4,845,456. The third top lot, a 6.04-carat, Burmese ruby ring (pictured below) by Etcetera sold for $3,330,768, fetching a world auction record per carat for a ruby at $551,000.
Vickie Sek, the director and head of jewelry and jadeite at Christie’s Asia, said, ''The $80 million auction was highlighted with top prices across the board, culminating in a world record price of $551,000 per carat for a perfect Burmese ruby of 6.04 carats.''
Another highlight of the sale included a diamond ring by JAR, which sold for $2,970,128 and featured an oval-cut 10.67-carat and two pear shaped diamonds of 6 carats, all were D, IF. ruby diamond ring

Other top lots included a 3.11-carat, VVS1 intense pink rectangular-cut diamond that sold for $2,032,464; a 14.37-carat, D, IF pear that sold for $1,960,336; and an 11.85-carat, D, potentially IF diamond ring by Harry Winston that also sold for $1,960,336.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.