|
RAPAPORT... Raising the bar once again, Christie's sale of magnificent jewels in Geneva achieved the highest total ever for a jewelry auction at $154,193,622. Six new auction records were also set at the sale, which was 85 percent sold by lot and 94 percent sold by value. "Buyers from all over the world competed fiercely in the jewelry sale that became the most valuable sale ever organized by any auction house anywhere in the world," said François Curiel, the president of Christie's Switzerland.  Harry Winston bought the top lot of the evening, a pear-shaped blue diamond of 13.22 carats that, according to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), is the largest flawless fancy-vivid blue diamond in the world. It sold for a staggering $23,795,372, which, at $1,799,953 per carat, is a new world auction record price per carat for a blue diamond. Harry Winston's CEO, Nayla Hayek, named the diamond "The Winston Blue." The second top lot of the evening was a spectacular Belle Epoque diamond devant-de-corsage brooch made by Cartier in 1912. It sold for $17,581,612, representing a 660 percent increase from its 1991 sales price of $2.65 million at Christie’s Geneva. A cut-cornered square-cut light pink, VVS1 diamond necklace of 76.51 carats by Leviev established a new world auction record price for a light pink diamond, selling for $10,000,825, or $130,712 per carat. The "Ocean Dream," a triangular-cut fancy vivid blue-green, SI1 diamond of 5.50 carats, sold to a private Asian buyer for $8,633,798, a new world auction record price for a blue-green diamond. Notable lots in colorless diamonds included a large pear-shaped, D color, flawless diamond of 75.97 carats, which sold for $14,474,732, or $190,532 per carat, and "The Rajah Diamond," an old-mine brilliant-cut, D color, VS2 diamond of 26.14 carats, which sold for $4,035,615, or $154,384 per carat. Overall, 27 lots sold above the $1 million price tag.
|