Largest diamond ever auctioned fetches record $34 mln

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A diamond necklace featuring a 163.41-carat flawless diamond has been sold for nearly 34 million US dollars at a Christie's auction in Geneva on Tuesday evening.

The D color diamond, suspended from an emerald and diamond necklace called The Art of Grisogono, was the largest ever offered at auction.

D is the highest color grade attributed to a diamond, indicating that the stone is completely colorless, and thus extremely rare.

It fetched 33.5 million Swiss francs (33.8 million US dollars) after taxes and commissions at the Christie's autumn jewel auction.

This marks "a new world-record price for a D color diamond at auction," said Rahul Kadakia, auctioneer and head of Christie's international jewels division.

The Art of Grisogono /theartofdegrisogono.com Photo

With a drawn-out round of rapid-fire bidding starting at 20 million francs, the necklace was finally sold to a telephone bidder, who wished to remain anonymous, for well above the asking price of 25 million.

Masterpiece

But some had expected The Art of Grisogono, which Christie's described as a "masterpiece of unparalleled beauty and exquisite workmanship," to fetch even more.

"I am disappointed that the Art of de Grisogono didn't sell for a more dazzling price," said Tobias Kormind, head of 77 Diamonds, a large European online diamond jeweler, who had said before the sale he thought the price might top 50 million US dollars.

The flawless, D color 11A type diamond was cut from a 404-carat rough rock which was discovered in February 2016 in the Lulo mine in Angola – the 27th biggest rough white diamond ever discovered.

/thejewelleryeditor.com Photo

The rough was analyzed in Antwerp and cut in New York, where a team of 10 diamond-cutting specialists were involved in mapping, plotting, cleaving, laser-cutting and polishing the giant rough rock into a polished, flawless diamond.

A team from Swiss luxury jeweler de Grisogono then created 50 different designs around the 163.41-carat diamond, before opting for an asymmetric necklace with the stone as its centerpiece.

The left side of the necklace is made up of 18 emerald-cut diamonds and the right side composed of two rows of pear-shaped emeralds.

French royal diamond

Another highlight of Tuesday's auction was a large pink diamond once set in the crowns of many French kings and emperors, including Napoleon.

It went under the hammer, again to an unidentified telephone bidder, for 12.5 million francs, with the final price tag after taxes and commissions ticking in at 14.4 million francs (14.5 million US dollars).

Christie's said the seller was a private collector, but did not reveal their identity.

Tuesday's sale marked the first time the diamond appeared at auction in 130 years.

Source(s): AFP