Image credit: Sotheby's
The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star has fetched $57.73 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong as one of the most valuable diamonds ever sold at the auction. The cushion-shaped fancy vivid pink internally flawless diamond beat pre-sale estimates at a price per carat record for any diamond.
It also become the second most valuable jewel or gemstone ever sold at auction, behind the record-breaking 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star, which generated US$71.2 million at Sotheby’s in April 2017.
The discovery of a gem-quality pink diamond of any size is an extremely rare occurrence, but even more so in the past two years, with the official closure of the Argyle mine in Australia, which was responsible for the world's largest supply of pink diamonds, according to Sotheby's.
The Williamson Pink Star diamond was named in homage to a 23.60-carat diamond given as a wedding present to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1947 by Canadian geologist and royalist, Dr. John Thorburn Williamson, who owned the Mwadui mine in Tanzania where it was discovered.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
