Biggest colorless diamond auctioned for $26.7mln in Switzerland

PanARMENIAN.Net - The biggest flawless, colorless diamond to appear at auction sold for a record 25.9 million Swiss francs ($26.7 million) in Switzerland, Bloomberg reports.

The pear-shaped 101.73-carat stone beat a minimum estimate of more than 19 million Swiss francs at hammer prices in the Christie’s International Geneva event. Its formal dollar price, made available by the auction house shortly after the sale, included a final buyer’s premium.

“For the uber-rich, if it’s the best, they want it,” Kieran McCarthy, director of the London-based jeweler Wartski, said in an interview before the sale. “This stone is the highest quality and it still will be in 40 years’ time.”

Demand for the rarest diamonds as an alternative asset and portable store of value has pushed up prices in recent years. The D-color stone, bought at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, was the biggest diamond of this optimum grade seen at auction. It was sold by a client who wishes to remain anonymous. The buyer was bidding on the telephone.

This was the first time the gem had appeared for sale and the buyer will be able to name it, London-based Christie’s said. The stone was cut from a rough diamond, weighing 236 carats, that was found at the Jwaneng mine in Botswana. It took 21 months to polish, said Christie’s.

The Jwaneng (meaning “place of small stones”) open pit diamond mine, the world’s richest by value, is jointly owned by De Beers and the government of Botswana.

“Since the recession, buyers of diamonds have become even more investment-conscious,” McCarthy said. “They are translating cash into stores of wealth.”

At the top end of the market, D-color or “white” stones are regarded as less desirable than their even rarer colored equivalents.

Before this sale, the record auction price for a colorless stone was the 20.4 million Swiss francs ($21.5 million at the time) with fees paid for the 76.02-carat Archduke Joseph Diamond at Christie’s in November 2012.

The record price for any gem at auction is the 45.4 million francs ($45.6 million) paid by the London dealer Laurence Graff for a 24.78-carat emerald-cut “Fancy Intense Pink” at Sotheby’s, Geneva, in November 2010.

The largest colorless diamond known is a 530.20-carat stone that is part of the British crown jewels.