Last night (April 4) Hong Kong, Sotheby’s sold the Pink Star, a 59.60-carat oval mixed-cut Fancy Vivid Pink Internally Flawless diamond, for HK$553 million ($71.2 million). This, according to Sotheby’s, is a new world auction record for any diamond or jewel. The Pink Star was acquired by jeweller Chow Tai Fook, “with the winning telephone bid placed by Dr. Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, Chairman of the company. The Pink Star has been renamed the CTF Pink in memory of the late Dr. Cheng Yu-Tung, father of the current chairman and founder of Chow Tai Fook, and commemorates the esteemed brand’s 88th anniversary”.
The CTF Pink is the largest Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded. It has received the highest colour and clarity grades from the GIA for pink diamonds. Mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999, “the 132.5-carat rough diamond was meticulously cut and polished over a period of two years and transformed into this stunning gemstone”, according to Sotheby’s.
The previous auction record for any diamond or gemstone was achieved by the “Oppenheimer Blue”, sold by Christie’s Geneva in May 2016 for $57.5 million. Previous auction record for any Fancy Vivid Pink Diamond was achieved by “The Unique Pink” – a 15.38-carat Pear-Shaped Fancy Vivid Pink Diamond sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in May 2016 for $31,561,200.
