Editor’s Note
A record-breaking gem, the Pink Star diamond, is set to make history at auction. Valued at over $60 million, this nearly 60-carat pink diamond will be offered at Sotheby’s Geneva on November 13, marking the highest price ever for a diamond entering the market.
A nearly 60-carat pink diamond, valued at over $60 million and named the Pink Star, will go on sale on November 13 at Sotheby’s auction house in Geneva, setting the highest price ever for a diamond entering the market.
It is an intense pink (fancy vivid pink), oval-cut, 59.60-carat diamond, free of impurities. According to David Bennet, President of Sotheby’s Switzerland, it is also “the largest diamond offered to date with these characteristics of color and purity.”
The Pink Star has received the highest rating for color and clarity from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). It also falls within a subgroup comprising 2% of all diamonds, known as “Type IIa,” which are chemically the purest and possess extraordinary optical transparency.
This gem is twice the size of the Graff Pink, a 24.78-carat fancy intense pink diamond that set the world auction record for a jewel and a gemstone when it sold for $46.2 million at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2010.
The current per-carat record for a pink diamond stands at $2.15 million, set by a five-carat vivid pink diamond.
Bennett emphasized the “immense importance” of this gem, with a “wealth of color and extraordinary size” that surpasses the characteristics of all known pink diamonds in state, royal, or private collections.
This rough diamond, discovered by De Beers in Africa in 1999, weighed 123.5 carats. It was meticulously cut and polished over two years at the Steinmetz workshop to become the spectacular gem presented to the press.
The jewel was first shown to the world in Monaco in 2003 and was acquired by an unknown buyer in 2007.
Also in 2003, it was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC alongside seven other exceptionally rare diamonds in the world, such as the De Beers Millennium Star, the Allnatt, and the Moussaieff Red. In 2005-2006, it was the main attraction of the “Diamonds” exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London.
Before its sale in November, the Pink Star will be displayed, after Geneva, in Hong Kong, New York, London, and Zurich.
Since their discovery in Indian mines several centuries ago, pink diamonds have been among the most coveted and prized by experts. Pink diamonds include some of the most important stones in history, such as the Williamson, the Hortense, the Darya-i-Nur, and the Agra.