Dubai: Touted as the world’s rarest of all diamonds, the Pink Star that went on display in Dubai a week earlier, will be auctioned in Hong Kong next month, Sotheby’s announced.
The premier auction house confirmed on Monday that the 59-carat gemstone, said to be one of the world’s great natural treasures, will lead its sales of magnificent jewels on April 4th.
The most-fabled and sought-after stone is valued at $60 million. It has received the highest colour and clarity grades from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) for pink diamond.
“It is the largest Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Pink diamond that the GIA has ever graded,” Sotheby’s said.
“At a time of unprecedented demand for the finest in coloured diamonds, I am delighted to be bringing this magnificent stone back to the market,” said David Bennett, worldwide chairman of Sotheby’s jewellery division.
“The extraordinary size of this 59.6-carat diamond, paired with its richness of colour, surpasses any known pink diamond recorded in history.”
The stone was taken to Dubai last week, to coincide with the opening of Sotheby’s Dubai office.
It was first discovered in a mine by De Beers in Africa in 1999. Initially, it was a 132.5-carat rough diamond and after it was polished over a two-year period, it transformed into a gemstone.
In November 2013, a buyer from New York, Isaac Wolf, won the bid to bring home the pink diamond for a little over $83 million during an auction in Geneva. However, the person who won the bid, a diamond cutter, failed to pay for the full amount, so the gemstone was returned to Sotheby’s.
