In a piece dedicated to the most valuable diamonds sold in 2016, The Jewellery Editor magazine elaborates the diamonds sold for astronomic sums last year: four blues, three pinks and one extraordinary green.
According to the piece, “Fancy coloured diamonds dominate the top 10, with blue diamonds, which account for a tiny 0.0001% of the world’s diamonds, performing particularly well” in 2016. The list is topped by the 813-carat “The Constellation” rough diamond, sold for $63.3 million in May. The huge rough was bought by Nemesis International, which sold the rights to market the huge rough to Fawaz Gruosi of de GRISOGONO. It was unearthed at Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana and “measures six centimeters across and is likely to be one of the largest flawless diamonds in the world when it is cut and polished”.
Two pear-shaped Fancy Vivid pink diamonds are in the list, including the 15.38 carat Unique Pink and a 9.14 carat Fancy Vivid pink. The only white diamonds to make the top 10 are also pear-shaped.
At number 10 us the Aurora Green diamond – a fascinating entry according to the article, since green diamonds “almost never appear at auction”. It is “special not just because of its size – 5.03 carats – but also because of its VS2 clarity”. The Aurora Green diamond set two auction records when it sold for $16.8 million at Christie’s Hong Kong in May, “shattering the previous record for a green diamond by millions”.
The top 10 most valuable diamonds of 2016 are:
1. 813-carat “The Constellation” rough diamond, sold for $63.3 million.
2. Oppenheimer Blue diamond, sold for $57,541,779 at Christie’s Geneva in May.
3. The Unique Pink diamond, sold for $31,561,200 at Sotheby’s Geneva in May.
4. Cullinan Dream diamond, sold for $25.4 million at Christie’s New York in June.
5. 17.07 carat Fancy Intense pink diamond ring, sold for $20,778,352 at Sotheby’s Geneva in November.
6. 9.14 carat pear-shaped Fancy Vivid pink diamond, renamed The Light of Memory, sold for $18,174,631 at Christie’s Geneva in November.
7. Miroir de ‘Amour pear-shaped D colour flawless diamond earrings, sold for $17,613,175 at Christie’s Geneva in November.
8. 7.32 carat internally flawless Fancy Vivid blue diamond, sold for $17,112,629 at Sotheby’s Geneva in May.
9. Sky Blue diamond, a Fancy Vivid Blue diamond weighing 8.01 carats, sold for $17,074,168 at Sotheby’s Geneva in November.
10. 5.03 carat Fancy Vivid Aurora Green diamond, sold for $16,818,981 at Christie’s Hong Kong in May.
