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According to Sotheby’s, a rare pink diamond recently sold in Hong Kong for close to $58 million, setting a record for the highest price ever paid per carat for any diamond or gemstone.
The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star sold for HK$453.2 million ($57.7 million) on Friday, making it the second-highest jewel auction price ever, according to Sotheby’s. An unidentified bidder from Boca Raton, Florida, placed the winning bid, which was more than double the anticipated sale price of $21 million.
The diamond sold at auction was the second-largest pink diamond ever. The rarest and most sought-after precious jewels on the market are pink diamonds.
When the CTF Pink Star stone, which established the world record price for a pink diamond in 2017, was sold in Hong Kong for $71.2 million, it did so.
Wenhao Yu, chairman of jewellery and watches at Sotheby’s Asia, said that Friday’s transaction “not only attests to the robust demand for high grade diamonds in Asia, but also a heightened understanding of the exceptional rarity of pink diamonds.”
The Williamson Pink Star was given its name in honour of two great pink diamonds, the record-breaking CTF Pink Star and the 23.6-carat Williamson Stone, which was given to Queen Elizabeth II in 1947 as a wedding gift.
The “astonishing” transaction, according to Tobias Kormind, managing director of UK jewellery shop 77 Diamonds, demonstrated that premium diamonds could still command high prices in a precarious economic climate.
According to him, “hard assets like top-notch diamonds have a history of doing well even in times of turmoil.”
