An extremely rare 14.8-carat purple-pink diamond has sold at auction for an astounding $26.6-million (R418 415 340)
This oval modified brilliant-cut fancy vivid diamond, named ‘The Spirit of the Rose’ is the largest pink diamond to ever be auctioned off. According to the BBC, 99% of all pink diamonds are under 10 carats.
This unique stone went on auction at Sotheby’s in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday [November 11], where it was one of three stones in a collection by Russian mining company Alrosa.
The diamond was cut from a rough diamond called Nijinsky, named after a Russian-Polish ballet dancer and choreographer. The rough stone was found in Russia in 2017.
The Spirit of the Rose is the largest pink diamond ever auctioned, but it did not fetch the best price. The current record for a pink diamond sold at an auction is held by the ‘CTF Pink Star’, a 59.60-carat oval mixed-cut Fancy Vivid Pink, Internally Flawless diamond which was auctioned at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 2017 for $71.2-million (R1 118 794 080).
According to Sotheby’s, pink diamonds were first discovered in India during the early 17th century, in the Kollur mine within the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, which was part of the legendary Golconda kingdom. Since then, they have also been mined in Brazil, South Africa, Tanzania, Canada, Australia and Russia.
An estimated 80% of the world’s pink diamonds now come from the Argyle mine in Kimberley, Western Australia.
Pink diamonds are incredibly rare, and it is believed they get their colouring from “a distortion in the diamond’s crystal lattice, created by intense heat and great pressure after the stone’s formation in the earth,” explains Sotheby’s. “This distortion displaces many carbon atoms from their normal positions and alters the qualities of the light reflected by the diamond – resulting in us observing the stone as pink.”
Picture: Sotheby’s
