Thaindian News

November 17, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): An infrequent pink diamond of 24.78-carat has been vended for a world-record price tag of slightly more than $46 million at an auction organized by Sotheby’s, which put up the precious stone for sale in Geneva. This diamond had been vended in the 1940s by Harry Winston, a rather famous jeweler, and has been positioned in a private compilation ever since. Sotheby’s has voiced that the purchaser of this pink diamond is British diamond retailer, Laurence Graff, who has instantaneously labeled the diamond, ‘The Graff Pink’. Graff, who expressed his elation on acquiring the pink diamond, had also obtained the blue Wittelsbach-Graff diamond of 35.56-carat two years back that was exchanged for $24.3 million.

The Gemological Institute of America has categorized this pink diamond as a ‘fancy intense pink’ and has evaluated it as IIa signifying that it is in the first 2% of the globe’s diamonds. David Bennett, the chairperson of Sotheby’s jewelry section in Europe and the Middle East, had brought down the hammer, after which Graff claimed that he is overjoyed due to his acquisition of this magnificent diamond. Bennett has claimed that the robustness of the diamond market has enhanced. Four contenders vied for the pink diamond, whose acquirer from Winston opted to maintain his anonymity.

Graff had infuriated the diamond traditionalists by cutting his blue diamond, which was labeled as a vandalistic and uncouth act. One doesn’t know whether he desires to transform the pink one as well, which Sotheby’s has declared could be graded as internally faultless after re-polishing. Sotheby’s has vocalized that the pink one possesses a defect imperceptible to the naked eye.

Mart van Drunen, a Dutch jeweler, has asserted that opulent acquisitionists from developing nations have been entering the high end of the diamond marketplace recently. This reality, along with the foray of the powerful middle classes from India, has enabled the augmentation in diamond prices. Existing uncertainties about the stock marketplace have also increased the cost of gold and other jewels.

Sotheby’s has remarked that it auctioned, along with the pink diamond, additional jewels on Tuesday for $105.1 million. The jewels once belonged to eminent personalities such as Cristina Ford and Christina Onassis.