Vivid Pink diamond sold off for record £6.5 million in Hong Kong
A rare, 5-carat ‘vivid pink’ diamond was auctioned off for a record £6.5 million at Christies in Hong Kong last week.
The sale made by an unidentified Asian buyer beat the previous record, set 15 years ago in Geneva for a 19.66-carat stone at £4.4 million.
Graff Diamond jewellers set the chickpea-sized stone (a quarter of the size of the Geneva stone) in a ‘cushion-cut’ ring. Francois Curiel, Christie’s Europe chairman described it as a “fabulous pink diamond, probably one of the rarest stones I’ve ever seen.”
The diamond’s pre-sale estimate was between five and seven million dollars. The pink gem’s per-carat price of £1.3 million was also the highest ever paid for any diamond at auction, according to Christie’s.
£1.2 million a carat for pink coloured diamond
“No stone has ever been sold for £1.2 million a carat, we were used to £600,000 a carat for coloured diamonds but never £1.2 million,” said Curiel. “This is an absolute record that is not going to be broken for a while I believe.”
The South African-mined diamond has minor blemishes, which the auction house says can be removed by minor re-polishing. The bid beat a £6.3 million bid for a seven-carat blue diamond in Geneva this year.
“This definitely went above its high estimate, but that is what the market thought it was worth,” a Christie’s spokeswoman told AFP. “We think this will probably hold for quite some time — it’s a very strong price.”
She added Asian jewellery buyers have become “an extremely important group” for the auction house. “They are very active, very sophisticated and they’re buying at the very high end.”
