An 8.1 carat purple-pink diamond was sold for a record-breaking US$17.8 million – US$2.1 million a carat – at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Auction on October 8. The previous world auction record for a fancy vivid pink diamond and record price per carat for a pink diamond were both achieved by a 5 carat fancy vivid pink diamond, which sold for US$10.78m – US$2.1m per carat – in Hong Kong in November 2009.
Quek Chin Yeow, deputy chairman and head of jewellery for Sotheby’s Asia, said the diamond “attracted keen attention” at the Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Sale before selling for the record bid. He said the diamond, which was not only Fancy Vivid in colour but Internally Flawless in clarity “ranks amongst the rarest and most desirable of coloured diamonds ever seen at auction”.
The stone was cut from a rough weighing more than 18 carats mined by De Beers.
Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Sale also broke the per-carat price record for Kashmir sapphire with the sale first of a Cartier sapphire ring for US$193,975 per carat and then again with the sale of a sapphire and diamond ring at US$236,404 per carat.