Diamond ring sold for $5m
2008-05-16 17:10
Bradley S Klapper
Geneva - A vivid blue 3.7-carat diamond ring sold for just under $5m at auction, becoming the priciest gemstone per carat, Sotheby's said on Friday.
The oval-shaped stone - about the size of a pistachio shell - fetched a price of $1.33m per carat, edging out a similar blue diamond that sold last year in Hong Kong for $1.32m per carat.
The auction house identified the buyer as London jeweller Laurence Graff, who is known in the industry as the "King of Diamonds".
In total, 423 lots sold for $57.1m on Thursday night at Geneva's plush Beau Rivage hotel. Jewels of "noble provenance" or those defined as "period pieces" performed particularly well, said David Bennett, Sotheby's chairperson of jewellery for Europe and the Middle East.
A 64-piece collection of jewels belonging to Lily Marinho, a French beauty queen who married two of Brazil's most powerful men, sold for $11m - easily clearing high-end estimates of $8.5m.
The top piece from the collection was a pair of pear-shaped diamond drops, which sold to an unnamed buyer for $2.9m.
Marinho, 87, was married to Brazilian millionaire Horacio de Carvalho and then Roberto Marinho, who died five years ago after building the Globo media empire.
On Wednesday evening, rival auctioneers Christie's nearly matched the Sotheby's jewels sale, fetching $57m over 265 lots.
The star of the show was a 13.4-carat "fancy intense blue" diamond that sold for $8.9m. Christie's said that was a record for a coloured diamond.
Among the five other stones that topped $2m was an emerald, diamond and natural pearl necklace that was bought for more than $5.6m, well over the high-end estimate of $3.1m.
- SAPA