Editor’s Note
A 16.53-carat alexandrite ring has shattered auction records, selling for $1.9 million at Sotheby’s. This sale underscores the surging market for this rare color-change gemstone.
A piece of alexandrite jewelry made history at Sotheby’s recent Magnificent Jewels auction in New York. A ring set with a 16.53-carat oval-shaped alexandrite sold to a buyer on the phone for $1.9 million, more than three times its high-end estimate of $600,000. It set a record for any alexandrite sold at auction, said Sotheby’s, noting that the gemstone, remarkable for its color-change phenomenon, is experiencing a “notable surge” in the market.
The piece was one of three alexandrite lots on offer, a group described by the auction house as being of “the finest gem quality.” They achieved a combined total of $3.3 million. A pair of earrings featuring a 7.69-carat and a 7.38-carat alexandrite sold for $1.2 million against a high-end estimate of $300,000 following a four-minute bidding war. A 40.52-carat oval-shaped alexandrite (est. $150,000 – 350,000) sold to an online bidder for $216,000.
Anna Ruzhnikov, a Sotheby’s specialist and head of Magnificent Jewels, said the stones are the finest and largest alexandrites the house has ever encountered.
The Magnificent Jewels auction, which took place in New York on Dec. 11, achieved $30 million, with 92 percent of the lots offered finding buyers. A ring featuring a 10.33-carat untreated Burmese ruby that Sotheby’s called “exceptional and immeasurably rare,” was the auction’s top lot. It sold for $5.5 million after a six-minute bidding battle between two bidders on the phone and one in the room, exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $1 million-$2 million.
Other notable sales included:
– A 7-carat fancy intense purplish pink diamond sold for $3.4 million.
– A 3.32-carat marquise-shaped fancy grayish blue diamond sold for $720,000.
– A 5.02-carat fancy orangy pink diamond and diamond ring sold for $684,000.
– A group of 10 Kashmir sapphires sold for $912,000.
Also at Magnificent Jewels, Sotheby’s offered a selection of jewels that belonged to beauty entrepreneur and philanthropist Sydell Miller. All 22 pieces in “A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller” found buyers, totaling $6 million. Her Graff diamond necklace featuring a detachable 18-carat pear-shaped diamond drop sold above its estimate for $1.8 million. A 21.46-carat diamond ring by Graff sold for $1.8 million following a nine-bidder chase.
Sotheby’s also sold pieces from the collection of New York socialite Millicent Rogers. A pair of her ruby and sapphire earclips by Suzanne Belperron realized $50,400, soaring above the pre-sale estimate, while a René Boivin brooch sold for $456,000.
Hundreds registered to participate in Magnificent Jewels, with participants hailing from more than 35 countries.