World’s largest orange diamond breaks record: sold for $36m

The world’s largest, vivid-orange diamond ever auctioned shattered a world record this week, selling for more than $35.5 million at Christie’s in Geneva, Switzerland.

The 14.82-carat diamond, expected to fetch about $20 million, set a world record price per carat for any diamond sold at auction, as well as a world record price for an orange diamond, the auction house said.

The sell comes only a day after the rare oval-cut vivid pink diamond was auctioned for $83 million.

Pure orange diamonds, also named “Fire diamonds” by famous gemologist Edwin Streeter in his book ‘The Great Diamonds of the World’ (1882), are exceptionally rare in nature.

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) said the deep orange gemstone, found in South Africa, rated at the top of known coloured diamonds, qualifying it as a “fancy vivid.”

Among the very few fancy vivid orange diamonds ever sold at auction, the largest was 5.54 carats. That stone, known as “The Pumpkin Diamond” fetched $1.3 million at Sotheby’s in 1997, selling to Ronald Winston, a son of Harry Winston Inc.’s founder.