A Japanese collector paid a record high price for a gem offered in an online auction, shedding $15.7 million for a rare 102.39-carat D-color, flawless diamond ($153,285 per carat). The stone broke the previous record for an online diamond sold at auction – Christie’s sale of a 28.86-carat diamond for $2.1 million in July, but did not live up to expectations, with some speculating it could bring more than $30 million, according to IDEX Online.
According to the report, the stone “was only the eighth D-color diamond +100 carats ever to have been offered at auction”. It was cut by Diacore from a 271-carat rough diamond unearthed at De Beers’ Victor Mine in Ontario, Canada
The buyer, an unnamed Japanese collector, bought the stone by phone and renamed it Maiko Star after his second daughter. The same collector bought a 88.22-carat diamond last year and named it Manami Star after his eldest daughter.
Patti Wong, chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, said: “This extraordinary gem needed no help from a pre-sale estimate or reserve to reach its rightful price – just the instinctive desire of collectors to own one of the earth’s greatest treasures”.
