Editor’s Note
This article examines how the surge in online auction participation is inflating winning bids, using the record-breaking $1.3 million sale of a vintage Cartier bracelet as a key example.
In today’s world where online auctions are popular, the increasing number of participants is driving a trend of rising winning bids!
In May of this year, a Cartier multi-colored bracelet known as “Tutti Frutti” (candied fruit), made around 1930 using rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and more, was sold at a Sotheby’s online auction for a record-breaking $1.3 million (approximately 139 million yen).
Due to the global pandemic of the novel coronavirus, high-end jewelry auctions have recently been held exclusively online. Regarding the great success of this auction, an executive from Sotheby’s Fine Jewelry department stated:
An executive from rival Christie’s also commented:
Encouraged by this situation, Christie’s plans to hold 22 luxury auctions by the end of July this year, half of which will be conducted online.
If online auctions increase the number of participants, the possibility of winning bids reaching new highs certainly seems higher. Riding this auction fever, let’s look back at jewelry that has achieved record-breaking prices in the past.
Placed on a band set with cushion-cut diamonds and laurel-cut white diamonds are 11 pear-shaped emeralds (totaling over 500 carats!), believed to have been discovered in Colombia and bead-processed in India.
It is believed that Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, commissioned French jeweler Chaumet to create it for his second wife, Katharina, in 1900.
It was offered at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva in 2011. Although its estimated price was $5-10 million, it fetched a record price for a tiara at $12,736,927 (approximately 1.3 billion yen).
This 18.96-carat rose-colored diamond, praised by experts as a “once-in-a-lifetime gem,” was offered at a Christie’s auction in Geneva in November 2018.
Classified as “Fancy Vivid,” a color grade found in only one out of 100,000 diamonds, this diamond was won by Harry Winston after fierce bidding for 50.3 million Swiss francs (approximately 5.6 billion yen). The price per carat for a pink diamond set a new record high.
The La Peregrina Pearl (the pendant top in the photo) was auctioned at a 2011 Sotheby’s New York sale of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry collection. It sold for a record price for a pearl at $11.8 million (approximately 1.2 billion yen).
This natural pear-shaped pearl, weighing a remarkable 50.56 carats, was a Valentine’s Day gift from her husband, actor Richard Burton, to Elizabeth.
A Sotheby’s executive explained at the time that what makes this pearl extraordinary is not just its size, perfect shape, and high quality, but also its clear provenance. Owned by Spanish royalty for over 200 years, it was later acquired by Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte before eventually becoming Elizabeth’s possession.
A collection of jewelry owned by the Bourbon-Parma family was auctioned at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2018. Among the items, particular attention was drawn to ten pieces of jewelry that belonged to France’s last queen, Marie Antoinette.
These were items she had placed in a wooden storage box with instructions for safekeeping in Brussels before her imprisonment. They were later transported to her nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (Emperor Francis I of Austria), and kept in Vienna. They were returned to Marie Antoinette’s daughter, Marie Thérèse, in 1795.
The highlight of the auction was an 18th-century pearl pendant top. The near-baroque-shaped natural pearl, attached below diamonds arranged in a ribbon shape, was reportedly once part of a three-strand pearl necklace owned by Marie Antoinette. After a bidding war, an anonymous bidder won it for 36.4 million Swiss francs (approximately 4.1 billion yen), surpassing the sale price of “La Peregrina.”
The “Oppenheimer Blue,” the largest “Fancy Vivid” blue diamond ever offered at auction. Mined in South Africa, this diamond is named after its former owner, diamond mining magnate Philip Oppenheimer.
When auctioned at Christie’s Geneva in May 2016, this rectangular-cut, 14.62-carat diamond was called “a gem among gems.” Colored diamonds are found in only one out of 10,000 diamonds, and blue is among the rarest and most valuable.
Over 300 people were in the auction room, and cheers erupted with each new bid during the 20-minute sale. It was finally hammered down for 56.8 million Swiss francs (approximately 6.4 billion yen), becoming the most expensive diamond ever sold at auction.
This jadeite (jade) necklace, owned by Barbara Hutton—born into one of America’s wealthiest families and known as a global jewelry collector—was a wedding gift from her father when she married her first husband, Alexis Mdivani “Prince” (who falsely claimed royalty) in 1933. The necklace, featuring 27 large jadeite beads, is believed to have been owned by a high-ranking member of China’s Qing Dynasty.
Offered at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong in 2014, it was won by Cartier for $27.4 million (approximately 2.9 billion yen), more than double its pre-sale estimate. The sparkling ruby and diamond clasp was later added by Cartier.