Fancy Colored Diamonds May Set Records at Geneva Sales

A spectacular pink diamond, the largest of its kind to ever appear at auction, has been sold for US$28.5m (£18.8m/€26.6m), narrowly beating auctioneers’ projections.

Christie’s says the pink diamond sold on Tuesday had the rare attribute of having no secondary color and had earned the “Fancy Vivid” color grading from the Gemological Institute of America.

Christie’s auction house will start off a two-day blitz of jewellery sales in Geneva today with an auction headlined by “The Pink”.

Geneva’s auction season, which began at the weekend, has already seen a number of high-profile lots snatched up, albeit at prices that seem ordinary compared to the enormous values attached to this week’s coloured stones.

He said: “The tremendous excitement previous year over the discovery of a 29.62-carat blue rough diamond at the Cullinan mine in South Africa has now been proved to have been totally justified”.

The head of Sotheby’s worldwide jewellery division, David Bennett, has called the Blue Moon “a simply sensational stone of ideal colour and purity”.

The precious jewel’s anticipated sale by Christie’s is part of a week of auctions that could see another coloured gemstone set a new world record. Excluding fees, “The Pink” sold for 25.5 million Swiss francs, which was within the pre-sale estimate range of 21 million-27 million Swiss francs ($23-28 million).

The Wednesday sale also features a Cartier pearl and diamond tiara – estimated at up to $450,000 – that survived the sinking of the Lusitania cruise liner 100 years ago, and a 15.20 carat fancy orange-pink diamond pendant owned by former James Bond actor Sean Connery, estimated at $1.2-$2.4 million.

The current record for a blue diamond belongs to the Zoe Diamond, which in November 2014 fetched $32.6 million in NY. Christie’s had listed the projected sale price at $23m-$28m.

In total, Christie’s 409 lot auction brought in $110 million.

Huge blue and pink diamonds, the star attractions at major jewel auctions in Geneva in the coming days, are expected to fetch tens of millions of dollars and possibly set new world records.

In the film, the watch is used to create a magnetic field which deflects bullets fired at the MI6 agent.

The ring will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s, in Geneva, on November 11.