Editor’s Note
A rare 37-carat emerald set by Cartier has set a new world record, selling for nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva. This piece, which can be worn as a brooch or pendant, is now the most expensive green gemstone ever sold.
A rare, 37-carat emerald was auctioned by Christie’s in Geneva on Tuesday for nearly nine million dollars (8.3 million euros). The diamond-set Aga Khan Emerald, designed by Cartier, can be worn as a clip brooch or as a pendant. This sale made it the most expensive green gemstone in the world.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned the jeweler Cartier to set the square emerald into a brooch with 20 diamonds, intending it as a gift for Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married. Dyer had the emerald auctioned in 1969 to donate the proceeds to animal welfare.
That auction also took place at Christie’s on Lake Geneva. The jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels won the bid, before the emerald changed hands a few years later to the US jeweler Harry Winston, who bore the nickname “King of Diamonds.”
Previously, a piece of jewelry from the house of Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave to his actress colleague Elizabeth Taylor as a wedding gift, was considered the most valuable green gemstone. That emerald, also set with diamonds, changed owners at an auction in New York for 6.5 million dollars.