The 59.6-carat Pink Star diamond lived up to its hype by selling for a world record price of approximately $83.4 million at Sotheby’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale Wednesday.
When introducing the internally flawless fancy pink vivid diamond, David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s Jewellery Division in Europe and the Middle East, called it “one of the most remarkable gems to ever appear at auction.”
Bidding opened at 48 million Swiss francs and gradually climbed to 64 million Swiss francs. After a pause it quickly climbed to 67 million francs ($73.2 million), shattering its $60 million high estimate. Nervous laughter could be heard on Sotheby’s live feed as the bidding slowly pushed up to the winning bid 68 million Swiss francs. Commission fees pushed the final total to more than 76.3 million Swiss francs ($83.4 million).
The diamond is graded as Type IIa, which is rare for any pink diamond, much less one of this size and color. Cut over a period of two years, The Pink Star is more than twice the size of the Graff Pink—a 24.78-carat fancy intense pink diamond that established a world auction record for a diamond and any gemstone or jewel at $46.2 million, at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2010. The current record price per carat for a fancy vivid pink diamond of $2,155,332 is set by a 5-carat diamond, sold in Hong Kong in January 2009. The current record price for any colored diamond sold at auction is $2,398,151 per carat, for “the Orange,” a 14.82-carat fancy vivid orange diamond that sold a day earlier at Christie’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels auction. The per carat price for the The Pink Star has yet to be released and will be updated.
Cut by Steinmetz Diamonds over a period of nearly two years from a 132.5-carat rough, the diamond was first unveiled to the public in May 2003 as the “Steinmetz Pink.” The stone was first sold privately in 2007 and renamed The Pink Star.
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