Red diamond sells for $2.1M, sets auction record

Christie’s New York saved one of the best for last on Monday. The final lot of the fall auction season, a 3.15-carat fancy reddish-orange diamond, sold for $2.1 million, setting new world records for both a reddish-orange diamond at auction and the price-per carat for that particular hue at $666,200.
A member of the U.S. trade purchased the circular-cut stone, paying nearly double its high pre-sale estimate of $1.2 million.
 
While it was record-setting, the red diamond was not the top lot of the day.
Christie’s sale of Magnificent Jewels saw diamantaire Laurence Graff pay $8.4 million for a 50.01-carat, D potentially flawless diamond ring (pictured below). It is the third time the famed diamantaire has purchased this particular ring.

“Diamonds of this exceptional caliber have a life and legacy that carries on beyond us all,” Graff said after the sale. “This is one of the finest D-color diamonds in the world and I am delighted to have it back again.”
All told, Christie’s New York sale garnered $32.5 million, selling 84 percent by lot and 86 percent by value.
This final sale of the year brings Christie's New York auction total of 2012 to more than $163 million. The auction house said the final total for the jewelry category will be released in January 2013 as part of the company’s annual report.
Among the New York headlines for the year was the April sale of the jewels of reclusive U.S. copper heiress Huguette M. Clark, which totaled $20.8 million and set a new record for a pink diamond sold at auction in the United States.
The third highest-grossing lot of Monday’s sale was a modified cushion-cut, 6.18-carat Burmese ruby ring in 18-karat gold. A member of the European trade paid $1.7 million for the ring, with features a bezel-set ruby surrounded by baguettes.
A 30.73-carat, rectangular-cut, H VS1 diamond ring by Sabbadini sold for $1.7 million to a member of the Middle Eastern trade and was the fourth highest-grossing lot of the sale.
In addition, an anonymous buyer snapped up a 9.81-carat, cushion-cut Kashmir sapphire signed ring from Tiffany & Co. (pictured here)  for $1.4 million, or $154,000 a carat. The ring’s sale set a new world record price for a Kashmir sapphire at auction.

Source: nationaljeweler