The Pink Star. (Click on image to enlarge it). UPDATE: SOLD FOR $83,187,381
THE Pink Star, the most valuable diamond ever to be offered at auction, comes up at Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 13. The 59.60 oval diamond, estimated to make more than $60 million, is the largest internally flawless fancy vivid pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America has ever graded.
David Bennett, Chairman of Sotheby’s Jewellery Division in Europe and the Middle East and Chairman of Sotheby’s Switzerland, said: “I have had the privilege of examining some of the greatest gemstones in the world over the past 35 years, and I can say, without hesitation, that The Pink Star diamond is of immense importance. Its exceptional richness of colour – graded as ‘vivid pink’ by the Gemological Institute of America – combined with its extraordinary size, are characteristics that surpass those of any known pink diamond in State, Royal, or private collections. It is difficult to exaggerate the rarity of vivid pink diamonds weighing only five carats, so this 59.60 carat stone is simply off any scale, and passes, I believe, into the ranks of the earth’s greatest natural treasures.”
The 132.5 carat rough diamond was mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999 and painstakingly cut and polished by Steinmetz Diamonds over a period of two years. Unveiled as the ‘Steinmetz Pink’ in Monaco in 2003, the stone was first sold in 2007 and subsequently renamed ‘The Pink Star’.
UPDATE: IT MADE US$83,187,381 AND SET A NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR A DIAMOND OR JEWEL. THE SALE TOTALLED $199,512,930, THE HIGHEST JEWELLERY SALE TOTAL IN HISTORY.