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On April 16, Christie’s Magnificent Jewels Sale in New York fetched a total of $60.6 million. The top lot was a pair of round, D-color internally flawless diamonds, weighing 22.60 and 22.31 carats, which brought $8.6 million. The two-session sale featured more than 250 jewels.

The auction included the collection of animal welfare advocates Riki and Jerome Shaw. All of the proceeds from this portion of the sale, which totaled $8.6 million, were donated to cage-free animal shelters. Highlights from the Shaws’ collection included a 6.1-carat, rectangular-cut fancy intense pink diamond ring by Harry Winston, which netted $5.8 million and a Burmese ruby and diamond ring that fetched $1.3 million.

The Magnificent Jewels auction also included the private collection of Kathleen and Martin Field, which garnered over $6 million. The lot included a 20.10-carat rectangular-cut, D-color, VVS1 diamond by Harry Winston that sold for more than $2.4 million and a 42.88-carat rectangular-cut Colombian emerald and diamond brooch by Harry Winston that realized over $1.3 million.

Christie’s next Magnificent Jewels auction will take place on May 14 in Geneva. The sale will feature The Blue, the largest flawless vivid blue diamond in the world, as well as The Ocean Dream, the largest vivid blue-green diamond in the world.

A flawless D-color diamond weighing 101.73 carats will be offered as part of Christie’s International’s jewelry auction at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva, Switzerland on May 15, 2013. The pear-shaped gem, which is the largest colorless diamond of such high quality to appear at auction, is estimated to garner about $20 million. An anonymous client is selling the rare stone that was recently cut from a rough diamond weighing 236 carats found at the Jwaneng mine in Botswana. Workers spent 21 months polishing the jewel.

While colorless stones tend to be less desirable than their colored counterparts, the record price for a colorless stone at auction is $21.5 million, which was set by the 76.02 carat cushion-shaped Archduke Joseph Diamond that sold at Christie’s in Geneva in November 2012. The diamond heading to Christie’s in May is not only the largest colorless stone but also a chemically pure Type IIA diamond, which accounts for less than 2% of the world’s diamond production.

The buyer of the pear-shaped diamond will have the honor of naming the extraordinary jewel, securing its identity among the most desirable diamonds in the world.

Shortly before World War I English art collector, Hugh Blaker, found a portrait now dubbed the Isleworth Mona Lisa in Isleworth, London. For the past 35 years the Zurich-based Mona Lisa Foundation has been working to prove that the painting predates Leonardo da Vinci’s 16^th century masterpiece by 11 to 12 years. The experts involved based this conclusion on a series of regression tests, mathematical comparisons, and historical and archival records.

While at least one da Vinci expert is doubtful, the researchers involved in the Mona Lisa Foundation’s project are confident in their claim. Mathematical tests have proven that both of the sitters are in exactly the same place. Such accuracy was typical of da Vinci. Sporting the same enigmatic smiles, the posture, hands, faces, and expressions bear a striking resemblance.

Dissidents, including Oxford art historian Martin Kemp, think that the Isleworth Mona Lisa lacks the subtle details of the original. While the Isleworth Mona Lisa does look like a younger version of the original, the veil, hair, and the translucent layer of the sitter’s dress are lacking in quality.

The Isleworth Mona Lisa turned up in the home of an English nobleman during the late 19^th century and was shipped to the United States during the First World War. The painting was subject to analysis in Italy and was eventually taken to Switzerland where it remained in a bank vault for 40 years. The Isleworth Mona Lisa was unveiled by the Foundation on Thursday in Geneva and evidence of the painting’s authenticity was presented at the University of California.