Sotheby's to Auction "Most Valuable Diamond Ever"

Sotheby's stuns the world again with a record setting diamond- a 59.6 carat oval cut pink diamond that Sotheby's believes to be the most valuable diamond ever offered at auction. The estimated sales price is likely to be in excess of $60 million. This diamond, appropriately named the Pink Star, is more than double the size of the “Graff Pink”—the 24.78 ct. fancy intense pink diamond that established an auction world record for a diamond or jewel when it sold for $46.2 million at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2010. “The occurrence of pink diamonds in nature is extremely rare in any size,” said Tom Moses, GIA senior vice president, in a statement provided by Sotheby’s. “It’s our experience that large polished pink diamonds—over 10 carats—very rarely occur with an intense color. The GIA Laboratory has been issuing grading reports for 50 years, and this is the largest pink diamond with this depth of color that we have ever characterized.” The diamond is expected to beat the current record price per carat for a pink diamond. The current record holder, a 5-carat fancy vivid pink, sold for $2.1 million per carat. The Pink Star is notable because it has received the GIA’s highest color and clarity grades for pink, but it also an ultra-rare Type IIA diamond, meaning it is more chemically pure than other stones and has greater optical transparency. It is also the largest internally flawless fancy vivid pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded. The stone will be showcased on a world tour, travelling from Hong Kong to New York, London, Zurich and Geneva.