Editor’s Note
A 55.22-carat ruby has set a new auction record, selling for $34.8 million to an anonymous private collector at Sotheby’s in New York.
A ruby was auctioned in New York for a record price of $34.8 million (€32.5 million). The 55.22-carat gemstone was purchased over the phone by an anonymous private collector.
The auction house Sotheby’s in New York announced it had achieved a record result for a gemstone auction. The $34.8 million is the highest price ever paid at auction for a ruby. The gemstone named ‘Estrela de Fura’ was discovered last year in a mine in Mozambique. It was the largest ruby ever offered at auction, with a starting price of $21 million.
The previous record for a ruby was set by a 25.59-carat gemstone at an auction in Geneva in 2015. The price for that ruby from Myanmar was $30.33 million at the time.
At the Sotheby’s auction in New York, the pink diamond ‘Eternal Pink’ was also auctioned. It achieved a price of $34.8 million, matching the ruby ‘Estrela de Fura’. According to Sotheby’s, the 10.57-carat gemstone is the most valuable violet-pink diamond ever offered at auction.
Pink diamonds are considered particularly desirable and valuable. The auction record is held by the 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star, which was auctioned in Hong Kong in 2017 for $71.2 million.
Sotheby’s stated that the gemstones were among the most flawless and rarest of their kind. The identity of the winning bidders was not initially disclosed.