The ‘Pink Star’, 59.6 carat Flawless Vivid Pink Diamond sells for $83 million at auction

November 14th, 2013 by Noam Flint

What a vivid week! We have been anxiously waiting for months and it was certainly worth it!!!

It started at Christie’s Geneva with the sale of a 14.82 carat vivid orange diamond for $31.5 Million (highest price per carat ever) and moved (not far away) to Sotheby’s Geneva with the sale of the “Pink Star” – a 59.60 carat Flawless Vivid Pink Diamond.

All throughout 2013 (in fact 2011-2013) it seems that every single auction at Christies, Sotheby’s and even small auction houses like the exclusive Bonhams is stretching the prices of colored diamonds.

Every auction a record has been broken – Highest price for a rough blue diamond, highest price for a deep blue and so on and so on.

However, this week was different!!!

What makes this week different?

Well, if you have been following our blog then you must have read the following sentence before (once, twice or a dozen times):

Colored Diamonds are extremely rare, only 1 out of 10,000 diamonds is a natural color diamond

which is usually followed by the interpretation of how “no two colored diamonds are alike”.

But in this case, we are talking about diamonds that are so rare, so unique that the only time you may have the opportunity to see something like that again again will be the next time that the owner decides to sell.

The “Pink Star” – World’s most expensive diamond ever sold

The pink star was mined back in 1999 by De-Beers somewhere in Africa (exact location was never disclosed). It took Steinmetz Diamonds two years to polish it (which earned it the initial name of “The Steinmetz Pink”) from 132.5 carat down to its current state of 59.6. For those who are not aware, losing “only” 55% of the weight of the rough and achieving a flawless diamond is spectacular and shows the high quality of the diamond. Think of it, every carat point (0.01 carat) is worth approximately $14,000 (almost $1.4 Million per carat).

The GIA graded the diamond as a Flawless Fancy Vivid Pink (highest possible color intensity for a pink diamonds) and mentioned that it is the biggest of its kind that they have ever graded. It was also classified as a Type IIa diamond – diamonds that are known for their purity.

The gem was sold for the first time by De Beers during 2007 to an anonymous buyer who only six years later became the anonymous seller of the world’s most expensive diamond that was ever sold! Based on the rise in the prices of colored diamonds during the last few years with pink’s in particular, we can only assume that he multiplied his investment three / four times during those 6 years.

From preparations to a sale

The preparations for the sale were taken very seriously as the number of potential buyers for such a diamond are very limited. The news about this one of a kind diamond arriving to the auction was released more than a month ago. Then, two weeks before the show it was taken to a “Road Show”. For few days, the “Pink Star” was displayed in London. We can only wonder if it was intended for Graff to catch a glimpse. Graff, a world renown expert and buyer was the holder of the previous record belonging to the “Graff Pink”. A 24.78 carat pink diamond which he bought at the 2010 auction for the amount of $45.75 Million.

And then, finally, at the time of the so anticipated sale…

“Ladies and gentlemen, 68 million (Swiss francs) is the world record bid for a diamond ever bid and it’s right here,” (Sotheby’s David Bennett)

68 Million Francs, equivalent to $73.99 Million Dollars which after commissions comes to $83.02 Million Dollars – the new world record!

Here is the video from Sotheby’s:

It is no surprise that this record breaking diamond which fetched on its own $83 Million also helped Sotheby’s break another record. The sale itself brought in $199.5 Million which according to Sotheby’s is the highest amount of money a single auction has ever brought in.

Photo Credit: Sotheb’s