The current record for the sale of a pink diamond was $46.2 million, set five years ago by the “Graff Pink”. Sotheby’s only managed to sell 53 percent of the lots in a Geneva watch sale that raised $4 million on May 14.
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A supremely rare pear-shaped 15.38 carat pink diamond, called the “Unique Pink”, sold for Dollars 31.6 million at Sotheby’s in Geneva, making it the most expensive fancy vivid pink diamond ever to sell at an auction.
That 12.03 carat blue sparkler, dubbed the “Blue Moon of Josephine”, sold for an eye-watering $48.4 million, making it the world’s most expensive diamond ever.
The gemnomaniacal super-rich continue to smash sales records as Christie’s pulled in $58.25 million for “the largest vivid blue diamond ever to come to auction”.
Wednesday’s sale ended a two-day run of big-ticket jewellery auctions in Geneva.
It was expected to fetch between $38m and $45m at the auction, but attracted an owner willing to pay $6m more than the anticipated price.
The Oppenheimer stone is named for Britain’s Sir Philip Oppenheimer, who led a powerful cartel called the Central Selling Organization for 45 years, tightly controlling roughly 80 per cent of the global diamond trade in a bid to prevent wild price swings.
Three lots sold for over $10 million, while six lots sold for over $5m.
Cubic zirconia replicas of the original and a modern cut of the Kohinoor diamond, one of the oldest and most famous diamonds in the world.
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“As head of the London-based Central Selling Organisation for 45 years and serving as Chairman for the Diamond Trading Company branch, Sir Philip oversaw a diamond sales cartel set up by De Beers to keep strict control over the diamond supply worldwide”, the Christie’s catalogue said.
