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One of the world’s purest, most saturated pink diamonds could fetch more than $21 million when it’s up for auction in Asia next month, Sotheby’s announced Wednesday.
At 11.15 carats, the Williamson Pink Star is second-largest internally flawless, fancy vivid pink diamond to ever appear at auction, Sotheby’s spokeswoman Anna Tisi confirmed to USA TODAY on Thursday.
The gem is named in tribute to two other pink diamonds.
One is the CTF Pink Star, a 59.60-carat oval mixed-cut diamond that sold for a record $71.2 million at auction in 2017, according to Sotheby’s.
The other is the Williamson stone, a 23.60-carat diamond given to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as a wedding gift by Canadian geologist John Thorbur Williamson.
Yielded from a 32-carat rough diamond from the Williamson Mine in Tanzania, the gem set to go under the hammer has since been “masterfully cut into a dazzling cushion-cut, bringing out the diamond’s innermost beauty to full display,” Sotheby’s said in a statement to USA TODAY.
“With its unique color, considerable size, and dazzling brilliant cut, the Williamson Pink Star is both a work of nature and a work of art, establishing its place among the most fascinating colored diamonds,” the Gemological Institute of America Monograph said in the statement.
As rare as pink is in nature, pink diamonds are still rarer, according to Wenhao Yu, chairman of jewelry and watches at Sotheby’s Asia. Of all the diamonds submitted to the gemological institute, less than 3% are classified as colored diamonds, and less than 5% of those are considered predominantly pink, he said.
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“Driven by a limited supply and rising demand, prices for top-quality large pink diamonds over 5 carats have increased exponentially over the past decade, serendipitously setting the scene for the appearance now of this one-of-a-kind stone,” Yu said in the statement.
Most pink diamonds fall into the ranges of faint pink to fancy pink, and only a few have a strong face-up color that can be described as fancy vivid pink; and those are often small, Sothesby’s said. A fancy vivid pink diamond of more than 10 carats is extremely rare.
The single-lot sale, orchestrated by Sotheby’s Auction House in New York, is set for Oct. 5 in Hong Kong.
Traveling exhibitions dates for the diamond are:
- Dubai | Sept. 5-6
- Singapore | Sept. 9-11
- Taipei | Sept. 16-18
- Taichung |Sept. 21-22
- Hong Kong | Oct. 2-5
Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.
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