The Sun Drop Diamond. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE 11.28 MILLION SWISS FRANCS OR £7.8 MILLION STERLING, A WORLD RECORD FOR A YELLOW DIAMOND.
The Sun-Drop Diamond, the largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond in the world, will be offered by Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 15. Graded Fancy Vivid Yellow, the highest colour grading for a yellow diamond, it weighs in at 110.03 carats and it has a purity of VVS1. The rough for the Sun-Drop Diamond was discovered in South Africa in 2010. It was cut and polished by Cora International, with headquarters in New York. The estimate for the stone, which was exhibited earlier this year at London’s Natural History Museum, is $11-15 million.
Only three white diamonds of over 100 carats have ever been sold at auction, all at Sotheby’s Geneva. The Star of the Season — a Pear-shaped diamond of 100.10 carats made $16.5 million in 1995, an auction record for a white diamond; The Mouawad Splendour — a Modified Pear-Shaped Diamond (11 sided), 101.84 carats made $12.8 million in 1990 and the Star of Happiness — a Cut-Cornered Rectangular Modified Brilliant-Cut Diamond, 100.36 carats, made $11.9 mllion in 1993. In November 2010 the Graff Pink – a Fancy Intense Pink Diamond weighing 24.78 carats, sold for $46,158,674 at Sotheby’s in Geneva, and established a new world auction record for a diamond.
See post on antiquesandartireland.com for November 17, 2010.