'Pink Star' diamond auctioned for record US$83 million

GENEVA - A plum-sized diamond known as the "Pink Star" was auctioned in Geneva Wednesday for US$83 million, a world record for a gemstone. David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby's jewellery division in Europe and the Middle East, brought down the hammer in a Geneva hotel after an intense, five-minute bidding race between four contenders. The winner, a bearded man apparently in his sixties sporting a Jewish skullcap, ended pitted in a one-on-race against a telephone competitor to whom Patty Wong, chair of Sotheby's in Asia, spoke in Mandarin from the auction room. The bearded man declined to identify himself to AFP but confirmed that he had been representing another individual. Sotheby's later said the buyer was Isaac Wolf, a New York diamond cutter, who was going to rename the stone "The Pink Dream". The diamond was the star of a high-end jewelry auction in the upscale Beau Rivage Hotel on the shore of Lake Geneva. It had been estimated at US$60 million. Three years ago, Sotheby's set an auction record of US$46,2 million for a diamond when it sold the "Graff Pink" gemstone. The Sotheby's auction came a day after rival house Christie's sold an almond-shaped diamond dubbed "The Orange" for US$35,5 million, also a record in its category. The 59,60-carat "Pink Star" is the largest in its class ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), with the second biggest less than half its size. The sparkling oval-cut rock measures 2,69 by 2,06 centimetres, and weighs 11,92 grammes. In addition to its top colour and clarity ratings, it falls into a rare subgroup with the purest diamond crystals and extraordinary optical transparency, comprising less than two per cent of all gem diamonds, according to the GIA. The "Pink Star" was 132,5 carats in the rough when it was mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999, according to Sotheby's, which has not said which country it came from. It was cut and polished over two years by Steinmetz Diamonds, and unveiled to the public in 2003 under the title of the "Steinmetz Pink". The near-translucent rock was renamed after it was first sold four years later for an undisclosed sum to an unidentified buyer. Best known for shimmering white translucence, diamonds in fact come in all sorts of colours. Green diamonds, for instance, are coloured by radioactivity in the ground, blue diamonds get their colour from boron, and yellow diamonds, which in very rare cases turn orange, are coloured by nitrogen. A vivid blue, 5,04-carat diamond ring fetched 6,1 million francs (US$6,6 million), a million francs over its estimate. The "Wasilewska Briolette Diamond", a yellow diamond brooch once owned by opera singer Ganna Wasilewska, sold for 9,7 million francs (US$10,5 million). Analysts note that investors have often turned to jewels in uncertain economic times. They also carry prestige for growing global elites. - Nampa/AFP