Auctions

15-Carat Pink Diamond Sells for $31.6M

AuctionsMay 18, 2016

15-Carat Pink Diamond Sells for $31.6M

The largest fancy vivid pink pear-shaped diamond ever offered at auction, the “Unique Pink” led Sotheby’s Geneva jewelry sale.

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The 15.38-carat pear-shaped “Unique Pink” went for $31.6 million, or $2.1 million per carat, at Sotheby’s Geneva on Tuesday.

Geneva--A “rare and exceptional” fancy vivid pink pear-shaped diamond sold for $31.6 million, or about $2.1 million per carat, at Sotheby’s Geneva.

The stone’s sale price, which was $28 million excluding fees, came in at the low end of its estimated range of $28-$38 million.

The 15.38-carat pear-shaped “Unique Pink” is the largest fancy vivid pink pear-shaped diamond ever offered at auction, Sotheby’s said. It went to an unnamed buyer from Asia.

The pink stone was the highlight of the auction house’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale held Tuesday in Geneva.

All told, the jewelry auction garnered $174.5 million, which is a new world record for a jewelry auction.

According to the Gemological Institute of America, the Unique Pink is VVS2 clarity, and also was found to be Type IIa, displaying “exceedingly pure structure.”

Cora International cut and polished the rough diamond that yielded the Unique Pink.

The world auction record for any pink diamond is held by the Graff Pink, a 24.78-carat emerald-cut fancy intense pink diamond that sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in November 2010 for $46.2 million, or $1.9 million per carat.

The world auction record and record price per carat for any diamond or gemstone, meanwhile, currently belongs to the Blue Moon of Josephine. The 12.03-carat cushion-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond sold for $48.5 million, or $4 million per carat, at Sotheby’s Geneva in November.

Brecken Branstratoris the senior editor, gemstones at National Jeweler, covering sourcing, pricing and other developments in the colored stone sector.

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