GENEVA: Pink Legacy, an exceptionally large pink diamond, is set to go under the hammer at Christie’s in Geneva next week when it is expected to bring in up to $50 million.
At nearly 19 carats, the vividly colored gem is extraordinary, Jean-Marc Lunel, an international jewelry specialist at Christie’s, told AFP. “If you consider that most pink diamonds weigh less than a carat, it is really something,” he said.
The gem, which on November 13 will be offered at auction for the first time, has been estimated at between $30 million and $50 million (26.5-44.1 million euros), and Lunel suggested it could hit the high end of that range.
Christie’s pointed out that in the salesroom, fancy vivid pink diamonds over 10 carats are “virtually unheard of” and that only four vivid pink diamonds or over 10 carats have ever been offered for sale at auction.
One of them, the nearly 15-carat Pink Promise, was sold last November at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong for $32.5 million. That amounts to $2.176 million per carat, which remains the world auction record price per carat for any pink diamond.
And in 2013, a huge pink diamond weighing 59.60 carats meanwhile went under the hammer at Sotheby’s for $83 million, or $1.39 million per carat. The Pink Legacy was discovered in a South African mine around a century ago and was probably cut in the 1920s,” an expert said.