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.
The world record for a pink diamond was set in 2017, when a stone known as the CTF Pink Star was sold in Hong Kong for $71.2 million.
Friday’s sale “not only attests to the resilient demand for top quality diamonds in Asia, but a heightened awareness of the great scarcity of pink diamonds”, said Wenhao Yu, chairman of jewellery and watches at Sotheby’s Asia.
The Williamson Pink Star was named after two other pink diamonds: the record-setting CTF Pink Star and the Williamson Stone, a 23.6-carat diamond given as a wedding present to Queen Elizabeth II in 1947.
Tobias Kormind, managing director of UK jewel retailer 77 Diamonds, said the “astounding” sale proved high-quality diamonds could still fetch major prices in a shaky economy.
“Hard assets such as world-class diamonds have a history of performing well even in times of instability,” he said.
