The extremely rare pink diamond will be auctioned in Geneva on November 11.
Geneva, Switzerland:
An extremely rare pink diamond will be auctioned in Geneva on November 11 by Sotheby’s, which says it is worth between $ 23 million and $ 38 million.
Named “The Spirit of the Rose” after a famous Russian ballet, the 14.83-carat diamond mined in Russia is the largest diamond ever to be hammered in its class – “fancy bright purple rose”.
“The occurrence of pink diamonds in nature is extremely rare regardless of the size,” Gary Schuler, head of Sotheby’s jewelry division, said in a statement.
“Only 1% of all pink diamonds are larger than 10 carats.”
Speaking to AFP, Benoit Repellin, head of fine jewelry auctions at Sotheby’s Geneva, said the oval-shaped diamond was “completely pure”.
The rough diamond was unearthed by Russia’s Alrosa – one of the world‘s leading diamond producers – in the Republic of Sakha, in the northeast of the country, in July 2017.
Repellin said it took a laborious year for master cutters to turn the diamond into its polished form.
Sotheby’s said the world auction record for a diamond and any gemstone or jewelry was the “CTF Pink Star”, a 59.60-carat oval pink diamond that sold for $ 71.2 million in Hong Kong in 2017.
According to Repellin, five of the ten most valuable diamonds ever sold at auction were pink.
The sale of this gem coincides with the closure of the world‘s largest pink diamond mine in Australia after exhausting its reserves of gemstones.
The Argyle mine in remote Kimberley, Western Australia, has produced more than 90% of the world‘s pink diamonds.
