Sotheby’s, one of the world’s largest companies in the luxury art market in New York, set a world record for gemstones last week. Characterised by possessing exceptional clarity and a vivid red hue known as pigeon blood, the Mozambican ruby was sold for $34.8 million.
Christened the “Fura Star,” the ruby is 55.22 carats and was discovered in June last year by Canadian mining company Fura Gems which mines rubies in the Montepuez district of northern Mozambique.
According to Sotheby’s, this is the first time in the history of auctions that a coloured gemstone has achieved a price of over US$30 million in a single sale.
The ‘Fura Star’ was mined from a ɾօυɢҺ stone that made headlines upon its discovery. It initially weighed 101 carats, almost double that in its current form, and was the highest quality gem-quality ruby ever discovered.
According to the New York auction house, quoted by the News Artnet portal, two world records for gemstones were set at the event, as, in addition to the Mozambican ruby, a 10.57-carat pink-purple diamond, known as the “Eternal Rose”, also obtained the same value achieved by the “Fura Star”.
“Today, we witnessed the historic sale of not one, but two of the most exquisite and important diamonds and gemstones that have ever been auctioned,” Sotheby’s specialist Quig Bruning said in a press release.
Although it did not reveal what the pre-sale estimates were, the house indicated that the ruby went to a private collector in the Middle East.
The American Gemological Laboratory described the Mozambican ruby as being of “unparalleled uniqueness and importance,” adding that it is “by far the largest ruby of such quality ever mined in Mozambique.”
