59.60 carat "Pink Star" Diamond set to sell at Sotheby's
Sotheby's auction house has announced that it will be selling a rare pink diamond, known as the Pink Star Diamond, next month. The diamond is expected to sell for more than $60 million at auction, and is reportedly the most valuable diamond to have ever been auctioned off.
The current record for the most valuable diamond sold at auction to date, is held by the Graff Pink, which is a 24.78 carat, fancy intense pink diamond, which was purchased by London based jeweler, Laurence Graff, for $45.75 million in 2010. The largest pink diamond in the world is believed to be the Darya-ye Noor Diamond which is estimated to weigh 182 carats, the name means "Sea of Light" in Persian.
Records indicate that the Pink Star Diamond originated from a piece of diamond rough which weighed 132.50 carats when it was sourced from DeBeers in 1999. The exact geographic origin of the diamond mine where the piece of diamond rough is unknown, but it was somewhere in Africa.
The Pink Star Diamond was originally purchased in 2007 and set into a ring, it was later part of the Splendor of Diamonds exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington during 2003, during which time it was known as the "Steinmetz Pink" diamond, which is pictured to the left along with The De Beers Millennium Star, which weighs 203.04 carats and is the 6th-largest colorless diamond in the world; The Allnatt yellow diamond, which weighs 101.29 carats; The Heart of Eternity, which is a blue diamond weighing 27.64 carats; The Pumpkin Diamond, which is one of the largest orange diamonds weighing in at 5.54 carats; The Ocean Dream, which at 5.51 carats, is the largest blue-green diamond; and The Moussaieff Red which is the largest red diamond, weighing in at 5.11 carats.
Fancy Colored Diamonds from Brian Gavin:
Fancy color diamonds are all the rage these days, but the most popular colors seem to be fancy yellow and brown colored diamonds which offer intensity of color at prices which are still within reach of most people. Fancy color diamonds such as blues, pinks, greens, and reds, are extremely expensive when the color is of natural origin.
While Brian Gavin Diamonds is most well known for the colorless and near colorless diamonds featured in the Brian Gavin Signature and Brian Gavin Blue collections, we do represent an extensive collection of fancy colored diamonds, which are available in practically every color of the rainbow. The diamond pictured to the left is a fancy pink diamond from our collection of fancy colored diamonds. The intensity of color exhibited by this diamond is nice and deep, which makes it more visually appealing, but which also increases the price because they are valued by intensity of color.
It should be noted that fancy colored diamonds are cut for intensity of color, and not proportions as are the diamonds featured in the Brian Gavin Signature and Brian Gavin Blue collections. This is because fancy color diamonds are valued for their intensity of color and carat weight more than their clarity or overall cut quality. Therefore the documentation which we provide for our fancy colored diamonds is geared towards describing the intensity of color and not diamond cut quality... this is something which can take a little getting used to if you're used to playing with our ideal cut diamonds.
