Diamonds rarely come with a cheap price tag, but the world’s most expensive diamond just sold for a record-breaking fortune that will surprise most.
According to The Washington Post, Sotheby’s auctioned off a rare, 11.15-carat pink diamond in Hong Kong earlier this month. The jewel was expected to go for around $21 million, but it sold for double its price at $57.7 million USD.
This is the most expensive diamond per carat ever to be sold in history, and it’s also the second pink diamond to ever go on auction.
Known as the Williamson Pink Star, the piece draws its name from two other famous diamonds. The first part of the name is a nod to the Williamson diamond, a 23.60-carat stone that was given to Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding gift when she married Prince Phillip in 1947.
The second half of the name honors the 59.60-carat Pink Star Diamond, which broke records when it sold for $71.2 million in 2017.
Natural pink diamonds are considered extremely rare. Of the diamonds that are submitted to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), only 3% are colored. Of that small number, only 5% are classified as pink.
“This is an astounding result, proving the resilience of top diamonds in a shaky economy,” Tobias Kormind, the managing director of 77 Diamonds, told The Washington Post.
He continued, “Hard assets such as world-class diamonds have a history of performing well even in times of instability. Some of the world’s highest quality diamonds have seen prices double over the last 10 years.”
The Pink Star and the Williamson Pink Star aren’t the only colored diamonds to sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auctions.
In 2016, the Oppenheimer Blue Diamond (14.62-carats) made headlines when it was auctioned off for $57.5 million. The Orange sold for an impressive $2.4 million per carat, totalling to $35.54 million.
Interestingly, the largest diamond ever sold went for less than what the Williamson Pink Star diamond just sold for. Sold at a Christie’s auction in 2013, the colorless, oval cut diamond featured 118.28 carats and went for $30.6 million.
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Sources: The Washington Post, Geek Reporter, Ritani,