Following Lucapa Diamond’s latest amazing find – a rare 170-carat pink Type IIa pink diamond unearthed at its 40%-owned Lulo mine in Angola – here are some of the most expensive pink diamonds to ever see the light of a diamond auction.
The Graff Pink
The rare 24.78 carat pink diamond, once owned by celebrity jeweler Harry Winston, became the most expensive pink diamond jewel ever sold when it raked in $46.2 million at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2010. It was eclipsed three years later by the 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star, another real pink diamond, which was sold for $71.2 million at an auction.
The Sotheby’s sale was quite a coup, as the Graff Pink’s pre-sale price had been estimated at between $27 million and $38 million. The $46.2 million price tag was paid by Laurence Graff, who gave the stone its name. The previous owner, a private collector, owned it for over half a century; he originally purchased it from celebrity jewelry Harry Winston.
The Graff Pink is emerald cut with rounded corners and is today mounted on a platinum ring, flanked by shield-shaped diamonds on either side. According to the GIA (Gemological Institute of America), the Graff Pink is a fancy intense pink type IIa, a category which only 2% of the world’s diamonds can claim.
The Prince
In 2013, Christie’s sold the “Princie” – a 34.65-carat pink diamond – for $40 million.
The diamond, found over 300 years ago from Golconda mines near Hyderabad, India, has a formidable history: the stone was the first part of the collection owned by the Nizam of Hyderabad, passed through generations until the 1940s, when the last of Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, sold it through Sotheby’s to a Paris-based jeweler.
Then, in 1960, the precious stone was bought at Van Cleef & Arpels by Italian senator Renato Angiolillo. He gave the diamond his name, “Prince”, in honor of the 14-year-old Prince of Baroda.
CTF Pink Star diamond
The 59.60-carat CTF Pink Star qualifies as the largest internally flawless fancy vivid pink polished diamond that the GIA has ever graded.
The Type IIa stone weighed 132.5 carats in its raw state when it was discovered in Botswana in 1999. After Steinmetz Diamonds polished the gem and named it the ‘Steinmetz Pink’, it received its public premiere in 2003 and was first sold and renamed in 2007.
In April 2017, the Pink Star was sold for $71.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong to Chow Tai Fook. It was promptly renamed CTF Pink Star in honor of the owner’s father.
The Sakura Diamond
In May 2021, during an auction held at Christie’s Hong Kong, the 15.81-carat type IIa IF diamond dubbed “The Sakura” sold for $29.3 million – a record high price for a purple-pink diamond at auction. Vickie Sek, chair of Christie’s jewelry department, said the sale was an “important chapter in jewelry auction history”.
Named after the petals of the Sakura cherry blossom it resembles, the “Sakura Diamond ” is the largest purple-pink diamond ever offered at auction. Only 4% of pink diamonds are categorized as “fancy vivid”, and less than 10% of pink diamonds weigh over 0.2 carats.
The Lulo Rose Diamond
The 170-carat pink Type IIa diamond that Lucapa Diamond found and named “The Lulo Rose” is “believed to be the largest pink diamond recovered in the last 300 years,” according to an announcement issued by the company.
“The Lulo Rose” will be sold through an international tender conducted by Sodiam, the Angolan State diamond marketing company. Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources Diamantino Azevedo called the gem “spectacular”, saying that it “continues to showcase Angola as an important player on the world stage for diamond mining and demonstrates the potential and rewards for commitment and investment in our growing diamond mining industry.”
Pink diamond price
Pink diamonds are renowned for their exquisite beauty and rarity, often commanding some of the highest prices in the diamond market, including some of the biggest diamond in the world prices. The price of pink diamonds is influenced by several factors, and the strong demand continues to drive their value, making them coveted treasures sought after by those who appreciate their unparalleled elegance and investment potential.
