AFP, published on Monday, September 26, 2022 at 1:13 p.m.
A giant pink diamond, a very rare stone, will be auctioned in Geneva in November and could sell for up to 35 million dollars (36 million euros), Christie’s announced Monday.
The 18-carat gem is the largest pear-shaped pink diamond of this quality ever auctioned, adds Christie’s, which is owned by Artémis, a holding company for the French Pinault family.
The diamond, which will be auctioned for the first time on November 8, has been estimated at between $25 and $35 million.
It was mounted in a ring, flanked on either side by a large white diamond.
It weighs exactly 18.18 carats, a figure considered favorable in Asia according to Christie’s.
“Its auspicious weight of 18.18 carats (…) actually brings good luck to the new owner,” Angela Berden, an expert at Christie’s, told AFP.
“It’s a beautiful stone, it’s extremely rare to find a pink diamond, a hot pink diamond, of this size,” he adds, “I wouldn’t know where to find another.”
The “Fortune Pink” is the largest pear-shaped brilliant pink diamond to be auctioned to date, but larger cushion-shaped diamonds have already sold.
In 2018, Christie’s sold a spectacular 18.96-carat pink diamond, the “Pink Legacy,” for more than 50 million Swiss francs, or $49.9 million at the time, a record price per carat for a gemstone. that color.
This emerald-cut diamond discovered about a century ago in South Africa was purchased by American jeweler Harry Winston, owned by the Swiss watch group Swatch, who promptly renamed it “Winston Pink Legacy”.
The previous year, the “Raj Pink”, the world’s largest deep pink diamond weighing 37.3 carats and auctioned by Sotheby’s, had not found a buyer. It had been estimated at up to $30 million.