Yakut stones for which millions are paid: Secrets of the Ghost of the Rose diamond and other rare diamonds

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Colored diamonds are extremely rare in nature. Nevertheless, they still exist, and diamonds cut from them cost fabulous money. Literally at the beginning of November this year, a record deal took place at the Sotheby’s auction in Geneva. A pink gem called "The Ghost of the Rose" weighing 14, 83 carats, went under the hammer for $ 26.5 million. The diamond, the rarity and beauty of which is difficult to overestimate, was mined at the Yakutsk deposit, where rare specimens are not often found. In our publication, we will also talk about other colored diamonds that have appeared at global auction sales over the past decade.

The global diamond market is an industry that generates billions of dollars for mining companies. It should be noted that the search for new deposits is constantly being carried out on all continents, but diamonds are massively mined only in 26 countries of the world. At the moment, the undisputed leader in diamond mining is Russia - 29% of the market, which is almost a third.

The value of colored diamonds

Of course, gem-quality colored diamonds have a special price on the market, which are much less common than colorless ones. Their color can be yellow, orange, cognac, purple, green, pink, red, blue or blue.

For comparison: while colorless diamonds are mined several million pieces a year, there are only dozens of bright clear colored diamonds. Thus, a flawless 102-carat colorless diamond was sold this fall for only $ 15.7 million. And according to experts, it was a very profitable sale. It was only the eighth over 100 carat stone ever sold under the hammer.

The Ghost of the Rose

The Phantom of the Rose was cut from the rough Vatslav Nijinsky diamond found in 2017 by the Yakut company Alrosa, the largest in the world, which accounts for almost 27% of the world's and 95% of Russian diamond production. The catalog of the auction house Sotheby's said: To this we can only add that in terms of its weight and quality, purity, it is absolutely the rarest thing.

A purplish pink diamond weighing 14.83 carats, was sold at auction for 24.393 million Swiss francs (26.6 million dollars). A rare diamond named after the famous ballet Mikhail Fokine broke the auction record.

The buyer of the diamond wished to remain anonymous and during the auction made a bid by phone. The considerable cost of the lot is explained by the fact that pink stones themselves are quite rare, says Edward Utkin, General Director of the Guild of Russian Jewelers: Sotheby's experts before the sale of the Ghost of the Rose diamond estimated it at amount from $ 23 million to $ 38 million.

As a rule, repeated sales of such things are rather an exception.

By the way, Yakut diamonds of rare color shades weighing more than 10 carats are extremely rare, about once a year. As for the shades of pink, to date, Alrosa's largest pink diamond has weighed just 3.86 carats. However, on a global scale, they are very rare.

World record holder among pink colored diamonds - "Pink Star"

The most expensive stone of this kind, mined at one of the De Beers deposits in South Africa in 1999, weighing 59.6 carats, was sold for 71.2 million dollars. (unprocessed, it weighed 132.5 carats). According to the official data of the Sotheby's trading house, of all pink diamonds sold at the auction, the record belongs to the Pink Star, which was sold under the hammer in Hong Kong in April 2017.

Moreover, it was sold on the second attempt. It is curious that the first time they tried to sell this diamond back in 2013 at an auction in Geneva. Then the selling price for the "Pink Star" reached $ 83 million, but the potential buyer was unable to pay off on time, and the diamond returned to the auction. The stone was re-auctioned in April 2017 in Hong Kong. The deal was successful, however, this time the Pink Star was awarded a little more than $ 71 million. The rare Pink Star diamond became not only the most expensive gem that ever went under the hammer, but its size was also a record. - said the chief appraiser of the jewelry company before the auction.

The starting price of the gem was $ 56 million. The trades took no more than five minutes. The auction house announced that the buyer was Chow Tai Fook Jewelery from Hong Kong.

According to representatives of the auction house, this oval diamond is the largest stone of perfect clarity and unusually bright color of all pink diamonds ever evaluated by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

Blue diamond "Blue Moon"

The rarest blue diamond "Blue Moon" in the shape of an "oval cushion" set a world record for the cost of blue stones. It was cut from a 29.60-carat diamond found in South Africa at the Cullinan mine in 2014. The stone was cut for about six months. Curiously, the internal imperfections of this stone are not visible even in a magnifying glass with a tenfold magnification. The diamond has an intense blue color, which experts call "vivid fancy blue" - this is the highest color rating.

It was for this stone that a buyer from Hong Kong paid $ 48.5 million in 2015. According to the organizers of the Sotheby's Geneva auction, no known diamond had ever come close to such a price. Nevertheless, the day before, this 12.03 carat stone was estimated at $ 55 million. Nevertheless, "Blue Moon" went under the hammer at Sotheby’s for $ 48.63 million.

It is known from open sources that after the purchase, the Hong Kong tycoon Joseph Lau renamed the diamond "Josephine's Blue Moon" in honor of his daughter. Earlier, the same billionaire bought another rare pink diamond weighing 16.08 carats at Christie's for $ 28.5 million and named it Sweet Josephine, and the diamond bought in 2014 at Sotheby's for $ 33 million was named after another his daughter - "Zoe Diamond".

Orange diamond "Orange"

"Orange" is a bright orange pear-shaped diamond weighing 14.82 carats (2.96 grams). The largest known orange diamond in the world was sold in 2013 at Christie's Geneva auction for $ 35.54 million. While pink and blue diamonds appear regularly at auctions, orange stones are much less common.

Martian pink

At Christie's, it was considered the largest pink diamond at the time of sale in 2012. It went to an anonymous buyer for 17.4 million dollars, which significantly exceeded the forecasts of the organizers of the auction. It was predicted that the price of the diamond would be between $ 8 and $ 12 million. The Martian Pink diamond weighs about 12 carats. American jeweler Ronald Winston gave him that name in 1976 to mark the launch of NASA's satellite to Mars.

Williamson Pink

For many years since then, the "Martian Pink" could only compete with the "Williamson Pink". The latter weighs 23.6 carats, it belongs to the British Queen Elizabeth II. However, Williamson Pink was never put up for sale as it was discovered in diamond mines in Tanzania and given to Elizabeth when she was still a princess. The diamond was a gift for the wedding of Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947.

P. S. Where do the names of diamonds come from?

Especially large or historically famous gemstones are traditionally given their own names. As a rule, according to the European tradition, diamonds weighing more than 10 carats have names, and there is no regularity in naming stones. which was then divided into nine parts, was named after the owner of the mine, Thomas Cullinan, - said the jeweler of the trading house Janelli.

Continuing the topic of diamonds of unusual color, read our publication: How black diamonds elevated and ruined the beloved jewelry brand of Russian oligarchs: de Grisogono