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$60 Million Could Secure you a Rare Pink Diamond
A rare diamond known as "The Pink Star" is returning to auction next month and could fetch a world record $60 million, three years after it was sold for an even larger amount, only for the buyer to pull out of the deal.
The 59.60-carat diamond was presented by Sotheby's in London ahead of the auction in Hong Kong in early April.
In November 2013, a Geneva auction of the stone fetched a world record $83 million but the buyer, a New York-based diamond cutter, was unable to find the funds to pay and defaulted.
However, after several successful auctions of coloured diamonds in recent years, the auction house believes that now is a good time to try again.
"The last few years we've had coloured diamonds perform extremely well, many new records been created at auction for the coloured diamonds, pinks and blues mainly, so we thought it was a good time to bring it to the market," David Bennett, worldwide Chairman of Sotheby's Jewellery Division, told Reuters.
In 2015 the "Blue Moon of Josephine" sold for $48.5 million in Geneva. At 12.03 carats, it set a price-per-carat record.
"The Pink Star" is the largest Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Pink diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the auction house said, yet the sparkling stone is still small enough to fit onto a ring.
Sotheby's said that the mixed-cut diamond was initially mined by De Beers in 1999 in Botswana as a 132.5 carat rough diamond before being cut and polished.
Its refined form is now set to be the most valuable polished diamond ever offered at auction.
"The extraordinary size of this 59.60-carat diamond, paired with its richness of colour, surpasses any known pink diamond record in history," Bennett said.
The current record for a pink diamond is held by the "Graff Pink". At 24.78 carats it is half the size of The Pink Star and was sold in Geneva for $46.2 million in 2010.