What Happens when you Match a Vivid Pink Diamond with a Vivid Blue?

November 11th, 2014 by Noam Flint

For the last 3-4 years, the Chinese version for Cyber Monday occurs during November 11th. It’s called Singles Day – the reason is the numerical representation 11 / 11.

Oddly, during this day that is all about cheap Chinese merchandise sold by giants like Alibaba (through their B2C version – AliExpress), Christie’s is having one of the most amazing auctions of the year – The Magnificent Jewels auction.

Only a month ago Christie’s made us green with envy with a rare collection of green diamonds and now, it’s a Bulgari masterpiece that takes the headlines.

Vivid Blue and Vivid Pink Diamond Earrings by BulgariVivid Blue and Vivid Pink Diamond Earrings by Bulgari
Image: Christie’s

Blue & Pink Diamond Earrings by Bulgari

Bulgari needs no introduction (though their about page is interesting…).
The prestigious jeweler is often featured in auctions (more accurately the jewelry) and their pieces are favored and admired by collectors all over the world.
In fact, not too long ago a Bulgari deep blue diamond ring  sold for $9.6 Million and broke the record for the most expensive deep blue diamond ever sold ($1.8 million per carat).

This time, an anonymous private collector has decided to depart from a very rare pair of colored diamond earrings mounted with a 6.95 carat vivid blue diamond and a 6.79 carat vivid pink.

According to the GIA certificates, the vivid blue diamond is of si2 clarity and classified as Type IIb and the vivid pink diamond is graded as vs2 Type IIa.

On top of these two magnificent diamonds are clusters of white diamonds (14 to be exact) weighing anywhere from 1.05ct-2.03ct and with clarity grading of vs2 to internally flawless.
Altogether this piece weighs 19.28 carats and is estimated at…. $12 – $15 Million Dollars

Vivid Pink Plus Vivid Blue equals LESS!?

There is a known saying by Aristotle:

The sum of the parts is greater than the whole

Was he WRONG???

While it is (to my feeling) no real way to value such a piece since the number of people who are able to buy it can be counted with your fingers, it actually makes sense that combining these diamonds made them worth less! Why…?

As I was searching for the nearest possible match I found that back in 2009 Christie’s sold a 5 carat vivid pink diamond ring by Graff for $10.8 Million Dollars – more than $2 million per carat. Keep in mind that this was 5 years ago and prices of natural pink diamonds increased quite significantly since then…

 

Considering that the current pink is 6.79 carat I believe that it could have gotten more than $10 Million on its own (which is “only” $1.5 million per carat).

What about its blue companion…?

Generally speaking it is harder to find blue diamonds than pinks. Vivid blue diamonds of this caliber are… well… they aren’t.

Therefore, assuming that the above 6.95 carat vivid blue diamond would have been sold also for more than $1.5 million is very realistic.

(6.95ct + 6.79ct) * $1,500,000 = $20,610,000

And if they had gotten around $1.75M it means a total of over $24 Million…

Also, my personal feeling (as weird as it may sound) is that it would have been easier finding two people willing to pay $10 million each than one to pay $20 million.

What do you think?

 

UPDATE:

Going once, twice, SOLD to Graff!

The splendid Bulgari masterpiece was bought by the king of bling – Sir Laurence Graff – for $15.8 Million.

The same Graff who sold the 5 carat vivid back in 2009 for $2 million per carat.
And the same Graff that bought the Deep Blue for approximately $2 million per carat last year.

Could it be that I had the same analysis for the diamond’s value as Graff?