Editor’s Note
A record-breaking 55.22-carat ruby, the largest ever to appear at auction, has sold for $34.8 million in New York. This article details the historic sale and the origins of the remarkable gemstone.
A giant 55.22-carat ruby, named Estrela de Fura and the largest ever offered at auction, was sold on June 8 in New York for USD 34.8 million, a record for this gemstone, announced the company Sotheby’s.
Cut and polished from a 101-carat rough stone discovered in September in a mine in Montepeuz, Mozambique, operated by Fura Gems, the jewel was the star of this jewelry sale which featured 100 lots.
Offered with a starting price of USD 21 million, it was hammered down for USD 30 million, or USD 34.8 million including fees and commissions, to an anonymous telephone bidder.
A Sotheby’s spokesperson indicated that the buyer was a “private collector from the Middle East,” without further details.
The previous record belonged to a 25.59-carat Burmese ruby, sold for USD 30.33 million including fees by Sotheby’s in Geneva in 2015.
The market introduction of this extremely rare jewel, exhibited in Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Geneva, Dubai, and New York, was an event for the jewelry world.
During the same auction session, “The Eternal Pink,” a rare 10.57-carat pink diamond, sourced from a mine in Botswana, was sold for the same price of USD 34.8 million, setting a record per carat (USD 3.29 million) for a stone of this color.
The current absolute record for the sale price of a pink diamond was achieved in Hong Kong, China, in 2017, when the “Pink Star” (59.60 carats) was purchased for USD 71.2 million.