Editor’s Note
A rare 11.15-carat pink diamond, the “Williamson Pink Star,” has set a new world record for price per carat at auction, selling for $57.7 million in Hong Kong.
A rare pink diamond was sold at auction in Hong Kong on Friday for nearly $58 million, setting a new record for the price per carat of a diamond or gemstone, according to auction house Sotheby’s.
The 11.15-carat “Williamson Pink Star” was won for HK$453.2 million, or $57.7 million (approximately the same in Swiss francs), making it the second-highest price ever achieved for a jewel at auction, Sotheby’s added.
The winning bid, placed by an undisclosed buyer from Boca Raton, Florida, USA, was more than double the estimated selling price of $21 million. The coveted item was the second-largest pink diamond ever sold at auction. Pink diamonds are the rarest and most sought-after gemstones on the global market.
The record for a pink diamond was set in 2017 when a stone named the “CTF Pink Star” was sold in Hong Kong for $71.2 million. Friday’s sale “not only testifies to the resilience of demand for top-quality diamonds in Asia, but also to a growing awareness of the extreme rarity of pink diamonds,” said Wenhao Yu, head of Sotheby’s Asia jewelry and watch department.
The “Williamson Pink Star” is named after two other pink diamonds: the record-holding “CTF Pink Star” and the “Williamson Stone,” a 23.6-carat diamond given as a wedding gift to Queen Elizabeth II in 1947.
Tobias Kormind, managing director of British jeweler 77 Diamonds, considered this “staggering” sale demonstrated that high-quality diamonds could still command high prices in a faltering economy.