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The Fortune Pink diamond, an exceptionally uncommon big gemstone, bought for greater than $28.5 million at public sale in Geneva on Nov. 8, to a personal Asian collector.FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Photos
A pear-shaped 18-carat pink diamond billed as a rarity bought at a Geneva public sale for 28.4 million Swiss francs (US$28.8-million), together with charges and taxes, on the decrease finish of the anticipated vary.
The “Fortune Pink” fancy vivid pink stone, mentioned to be the biggest of its variety and form to go on the block, headlined Christie’s newest Geneva sale of jewelry. It had been anticipated to fetch between US$25-million and US$35-million.
The public sale home mentioned an unidentified Asian purchaser snapped up the diamond.
Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry division in Geneva, mentioned the stone with a powerful, saturated pink color was mined in Brazil greater than 15 years in the past. He declined to determine its proprietor, however described the diamond as “a real miracle of nature.”
Christie’s says the primary pink diamonds ever recorded had been present in India’s Golconda mines within the sixteenth century, earlier than others turned up over the centuries in locations resembling Africa, Australia, Brazil and Russia.
The pink stone’s public sale adopted a showroom tour in New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Taiwan earlier than its arrival in Geneva.
Managing director Tobias Kormind of 77 Diamonds, a web-based diamond jeweller, referred to as the sale worth disappointing.
“The extraordinary Fortune Pink diamond bought in Geneva, with its auspicious 18.18 carat weight, which signifies prosperity in Asia, sadly didn’t carry the luck or uplift in fortunes many had hoped for,” he mentioned.
He recommended the outcome could possibly be reflection of a “shaky world financial system” and different monetary elements, which have been “giving rise to worries creeping in, even among the many prime echelon of rich patrons.”
The public sale comes six months after Christie’s bought “The Rock” – a 228-carat egg-sized white diamond billed as the biggest of its variety to go up for public sale – for greater than US$21.75-million, together with charges. That was additionally on the low finish of the anticipated vary.