Pink Star diamond has sold for $83 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva – a record price for a gemstone.
The diamond measures 2.69 cm by 2.06 cm (1.06 inches by 0.81 inches) and is set on a ring.
The Pink Star was sold to Isaac Wolf, a well known New York diamond cutter who has renamed it the Pink Dream.
The winning bid surpasses the $46.2 million paid for the Graff Pink diamond three years ago, which was half the size of the Pink Star.
The $83 million includes Sotheby’s commission.
Pink Star diamond has sold for $83 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva
The winning bid was for 68 million Swiss francs ($74 million) and reports say there was a long silence between that offer and the previous telephone bid of 67 million Swiss francs.
“Ladies and gentlemen, 68 million is the world record bid for a diamond ever bid and it’s right here,” Sotheby’s David Bennett said as he brought down the hammer.
Sotheby’s played the theme tune from the “Pink Panther” movie after the winning bid was confirmed.
According to the auctioneer, the Pink Star was mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999, but it did not say which country.
It took two years to cut and polish the diamond, which was 132.5 carat in its rough state.
In its finished condition the Pink Star is 59.60 carat, more than double the size of the next biggest diamond in its class.
A carat is a weight measurement used for gemstones and is 0.2g (0.00705 ounces).
Sotheby’s has sold almost $200 million worth of jewellery in its current auction, a record for a single auction according to the company.
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Pink Star, a flawless 59.6-carat pink diamond will be auctioned in the Swiss city of Geneva at a record asking price of $60 million, Sotheby’s auction house says.
Sotheby’s says the oval-cut stone will become the most valuable diamond ever to be offered at auction.
Sotheby’s David Bennett says the diamond belongs in “the ranks of the earth’s greatest natural treasures”.
Pink Star is over twice the size of the 24.78-carat “Graff Pink” diamond that set the world auction record for $46.2 million.
Pink Star diamond will be auctioned in Geneva at a record asking price of $60 million
The diamond, which was mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999, has received the highest possible color and clarity rating from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).
Pink Star weighed 132.5 carats in the rough, and was cut and polished over a period of two years by Steinmetz Diamonds, the New York-based auction house said in a statement on Wednesday.
“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,” said David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s jewellery division in Europe and the Middle East.
He said it was very rare to have vivid pink diamonds weighing only five carats, “so this 59.6-carat stone is simply off any scale”.
Pink Star, which was previously known as the “Steinmetz Pink”, was sold privately in 2007 but neither the price nor the owner was disclosed.
The auction is scheduled to take place on November 13.
Sotheby’s will also auction a white diamond and a blue diamond, valued at more than $28 million and $19 million respectively, in Hong Kong in October.
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