A Fortune Pink 18.18-carat diamond, an exceptionally rare giant gemstone, sold for more than $28.5 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday to a private Asian customer, news agency AFP ɾєρօɾτed. The dazzling diamond is the largest pear-shaped “fancy vivid pink” diamond ever sold under the hammer.
The Fortune Pink, mined in Brazil, had been estimated to fetch between $25 million and $35 million. Christie’s auction house noted that the carat weight, 18.18, was considered a lucky number in Asia, where it signifies “definite prosperity”, and gave the diamond its name.
About pink diamonds:
Pink diamonds are only found in a few places and fewer than 10% weigh more than one-fifth of a carat.
Big jewels like the Fortune Pink are therefore among the rarest diamonds and are some of the most in-demand on the global market.
On Friday, the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star pink diamond sold in Hong Kong for HK$453.2 million ($57.7 million), setting a record for price per carat paid at auction for any diamond or gemstone, according to Sotheby’s.
It was fetched the second-highest price paid at auction for any jewel.
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.
The Fortune Pink was auctioned in the Magnificent Jewels sale at the Hotel des Bergues, part of Christie’s Luxury Week of sales in Geneva.
The jewels sale of 71 lots fetched nearly 56.6 million Swiss francs. Five other diamond lots went for more than a million Swiss francs.
Sotheby’s Geneva Luxury Week is also underway, with a fancy vivid blue cushion-shaped diamond weighing 5.53 carats estimated to fetch 11 to 15 million Swiss francs on Wednesday.
It is part of the De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection — a group of eight rare fancy blue diamonds with a total value of more than $70 million, being sold in Geneva, New York, and Hong Kong.
