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SourcingFeb 18, 2020
Larry West Bought This 6-Carat Pink-Purple Diamond from Russia
It’s the latest in a line of notable natural colored diamonds mined and cut by Alrosa.
Alrosa sold this cushion-cut 6.21-carat fancy intense pink-purple diamond to New York dealer Larry West. The GIA graded the stone, giving it a clarity of VS1 and a cut grade of excellent.
Moscow—Alrosa has sold another natural colored diamond from Russia to a well-known diamantaire.
The company announced Tuesday that Larry West, owner of L.J. West Diamonds, bought a 6.21-carat fancy intense pink-purple diamond directly from Alrosa.
The purchase price for the cushion-cut stone was not disclosed.
Alrosa cut and polished the diamond from a 20.18-carat stone found in Yakutia, a region in northeastern Siberia, in August 2018.
RELATED CONTENT—Up, Up, and Away: The Rise in Natural Colored Diamond PricesNew York-based West has amassed one of the largest collections of natural colored diamonds in the world.
He first started buying pink diamonds in the 1980s, traveling to the Argyle Mine in Western Australia, long before there was any buzz about the mine or its vibrant pink and purple diamonds.
His purchases include the 2.83-carat “Argyle Violet,” a purple diamond from Argyle, and a 16.78-carat vivid yellow diamond, and he’s loaned portions of his collection to museums for exhibitions on colored diamonds in the past.
But Argyle is scheduled to close at the end of 2020, cutting off the world’s major supply of pink and purple stones. Its closure is expected to send pink diamond prices soaring as supply dwindles.
“As global production declines, pink diamonds will become rarer and thus more valuable,” West said.
“This is the first diamond from Russia that I have bought directly from Alrosa. It possesses excellent characteristics and will certainly take a worthy place in my collection.”
It came with an “electronic passport” that includes a detailed visual history of the diamond’s extraction and production as well as information on the diamond cutter who created it; this information is summarized in a short film produced by Alrosa.
The 6.21-carat cushion-cut fancy intense pink-purple diamond is one of a handful of sizable natural colored diamonds to be discovered in Russia and cut and polished by Alrosa recently, which wants to become known as a supplier and cutter of natural colored diamonds.
It joins the 14.83-carat “Spirit of the Rose,” a fancy vivid purple-pink, and the 20.69-carat “Firebird,” a fancy vivid yellow Graff Diamonds bought in late 2019, also directly from Alrosa.
These two diamonds are part of a three-stone collection Alrosa has dubbed “The Spectacle.” The third diamonds has yet to be revealed.
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