Coloured diamonds are now the world’s most expensive precious rocks.
An 8.41 carat, pear-shaped, flawless pink diamond will go under Sotheby’s hammer in Hong Kong on Oct. 7, with the rare gem expected to fetch up to US$15.4 million.
If the rock reaches its low-bid estimate of $1.5m per carat, it would gain a place among the top three pink stones ever sold at auction on a per-carat basis.
Sotheby’s expects this diamond to fetch between $12.8m and $15.4m at auction on October 7.
Quek Chin Yeow, chairman of Sotheby’s international jewellery business in Asia, highlited the concentrated shades of pink in this particular rock. “Combined with the exceptional clarity, it is not surprising that it would command the highest per-carat pre-sale estimate for any pink diamond to date,” he said in a press release.
According to auction house, growing wealth in Asian has produced new buyers big diamonds, with coloured ones becoming increasingly popular in the past decade.
These gems rarity has helped push diamond prices up, to the point that coloured rocks are now the world’s most expensive stones. A 14.82-carat orange diamond sold for $36 million at Christie’s International in Geneva in November, setting a record $2.4 million a carat. The same month, Sotheby’s sold the Pink Dream, a 59.6-carat pink stone, for $83 million.
Viewings will be held in Singapore, Taipei, New York, London, Geneva and Hong Kong before the auction.
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Charlie
Two pear shapes are shown. The more slender pear is the diamond in question.