Displaying items by tag: Diamond

In a stroke of good fortune, the Lucara Diamond firm discovered the world’s second-largest diamond of gem quality in Botswana. This 1,111-carat diamond is second only to the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa in 1905. The gem measures 65mm x 56mm x 40mm and was recovered from the Karowe mine located north of the capital Gaborone.

A spectacular pink diamond, the largest of its kind to ever appear at auction, sold for $28.5 million (26.6 million euros) on Tuesday, narrowly beating auction house Christie's projection. 

An unidentified bidder snatched up the 16.08-carat rare gemstone, kicking off a week of auctions that could see another colored diamond set a new world record.

That stone, a 12.03-carat blue diamond described by experts as flawless, is being sold by rival auction house Sotheby's on Wednesday, and could fetch a record $55 million.

Christie’s Important Jewels sale, held October 20 in New York, brought $20.0 million, with white and yellow diamonds fetching the highest prices.

The top lot for the sale was a cushion-cut fancy vivid yellow diamond ring of 75.56 carats, which realized $3.6 million, within its pre-sale estimate of $3 million to $4 million.

Sotheby’s will offer the 12.03 carat Blue Moon Diamond, among the largest known fancy vivid blue diamonds at part of its Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels in Geneva on November 11.

A blue diamond is created when boron is mixed with carbon during the gem’s formation. Graded Fancy Vivid Blue – the highest possible colour grading for blue diamonds, the cushion brilliant-cut stone has been declared Internally Flawless by the GIA and carried an estimate of $ 35-55 million.

A dazzling array of Art Deco jewels is set to headline Christie’s sale of Important Jewels in New York on June 16.

The top lot of the auction is an Art Deco diamond pendant necklace suspending a D-color, internally flawless diamond of 16.24 carats that is estimated to achieve between $1.6 million and $2 million.

In 1943, the Allied team known as the Monuments Men were instrumental in recovering roughly 3,500 artworks that were confiscated by the Nazis during World War II and stashed hidden in salt mines for the intended purpose of going toward Adolf Hitler's proposed Führermuseum in Linz.

Among those artistic treasures were about 250 of the finest jewels, decorative objects and paintings collected by Austria’s Baron and Baroness Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild, which include an Art Deco emerald and diamond brooch that the Baron gave the Baroness on their 25th wedding anniversary.

A "perfect" diamond said to be so large that it draws awe-struck people across a room has sold for $22 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York.

The 100-carat, emerald cut, D color, internally flawless diamond is the largest of its clarity and cut to ever be shown at auction.

"People everywhere have been drawn to it from across the room and they are in awe of its size, particularly when they put it on their hand," said Gary Schuler, the head of Sotheby's jewelery department in New York, before the sale. "They can't believe there's a diamond this pure of such impressive scale."

Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale achieved its target of $42.0 million on April 14, led by a fancy pink diamond that fetched $5.8 million, the auction house said.

The 5.29-carat bauble, of an intense purplish pink hue, sold to a buyer identified only as “U.S. trade” and came in at $1.1 million per carat.

Other diamonds fetching high prices included a pear-shaped potentially internally flawless diamond pendant of 25.49 carats, by Graff ($3.4 million) and a circular-cut fancy gray-blue diamond of 5.04 carats ($2.3 million).

Today, Sotheby’s announced that a rare Emerald-cut 100.2-carat perfect diamond will lead its April 21 Magnificent Jewels sale. The stone is just one of six diamonds over 100 carats and comparable-quality ever to be sold at auction, and is estimated between $19 and $25 million.

“The size is what makes it rare and beautiful,” said Frank Everett, Sotheby’s vice president of sales for jewelry, to the "Observer." (It is the largest perfect Emerald-cut to be sold at auction.) “It could be considered a kind of object of art. When you hold it in your hand it’s such a unique experience—you can see the mastery of the cut and the entire geometry.”