A stunning 59.6 carat diamond known as the “Pink Star” on Tuesday sold for US$71.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong, setting a new world record for any diamond or jewel, the auction house said.
The oval mixed-cut diamond smashed the US$60 million presale estimate set by Sotheby’s when it went on the block.
The sale came three years after the gem was sold at an even higher price at another Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, Switzerland. That deal later fell apart after the buyer defaulted.
Photo: AFP
The gem is the largest flawless fancy vivid pink diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America.
Three bidders competed by telephone for the stone during five tense minutes of bidding. The crowd in the packed auction room applauded when it was sold for a hammer price of US$63 million, not including the buyer’s premium.
Sotheby’s Asia chairwoman Patti Wong (黃林詩) said the winning bidder was Hong Kong jeweler Chow Tai Fook Enterprises.
“We’re very happy,” Wong said.
“I know there was a lot of talk about the economy in China not being as positive as it was a few years ago,” but the results from the auction, which included nearly 200 other lots, were very strong, she said.
Wong said that the company is not worried about another default, because the bidders were vetted and have long-standing relationships with Sotheby’s.
Until now, the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction was the “Oppenheimer Blue,” which fetched 56.8 million Swiss francs (US$56.7 million at the current exchange rate) in May last year.
The previous world auction record for a pink diamond was US$46.2 million for the 24.78 carat “Graff Pink” in 2010.
Sotheby’s decided the time was right to bring the diamond back to the market because of rising demand from wealthy Asian buyers.
“The Asian element in the jewelry market is extremely important, and from what I’ve been hearing from members of the trade I’ve been talking to, in the last six months they have become more and more important,” Sotheby’s international jewelry division chairman David Bennett said.
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