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Christie's 2006 Jewelry Sales +27% to $354.7M
Feb 19, 2007 4:29 AM
By Jeanette Goldman
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RAPAPORT... Christie's jewelry sales in 2006 reached $354.7 million, according to figures released by the company on February 15. This represents a 27 percent increase from 2005 and is the highest annual jewelry total every achieved by Christie's.
Francois Curiel, international head of jewelry and chairman of Christie’s Europe noted the company is seeing an explosion in the jewelry market, particularly for contemporary creations that are rare and one-of-a-kind. "For these, as well as for diamonds and precious stones of high quality, prices have risen to a whole new level. This is partly due to the participation of new buyers from China, India, Russia, and the Middle East, where we launched in January 2007 our first jewelry auction in Dubai,” Curiel said.
In 2006, Christie's jewelry sales in the United States rose 27 percent to $110 million, while sales in Europe rose 27 percent to $163.8 million, with the highest totals ever achieved by Christie's in Amsterdam, London, Milan/Rome, Paris, and St. Moritz. In Hong Kong, Christie's sold $80.4 million, including a $39.3 million sale in November.
During the year, Christie’s sold seven of the 10 most expensive jewels offered by an auction house, with 43 pieces exceeding the $1 million benchmark.
According to Christie's, the global jewelry market has continued to gain strength from the participation of new buyers from China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, India, as well as Russia and the Middle East. Private collectors from Asia purchased the top two jewelry lots in the Princess Margaret sale and were active buyers in virtually every important auction of the year. Activity from collectors from Russia was up in most centers, especially St Moritz. February’s sale, the largest in Christie’s 16-year history of auctions in the resort, saw activity from Russian buyers increase to 24 percent, up from 10 percent in 2005.
Diamonds continued to lead the international jewelry market, as seen with the exceptional prices achieved at every Christie’s auction worldwide in 2006. The top lot of the year was a D color, internally flawless diamond of 50.53 carats sold in New York in April for $4.2 million– or $83,000 per carat. Colored diamonds continued to attract great interest, especially pink and blue gems that can be worth 10 times more than their colorless counterparts, Christie's stated.
Colored gemstones, rubies in particular, also remained in demand and a Burmese gem of 8.62 carats achieved $3.6 million in St. Moritz in February, setting a world record price per carat of $425,000.
Contemporary jewelry also thrived, with signed creations by world renowned designers bringing in strong prices as collectors demonstrated confidence in acquiring jewels as works of art. This was seen most clearly in the sale of Ellen Barkin’s collection and its unique ensemble of 17 jewels by JAR.
Inspired pieces from this master jeweler far surpassed not only pre-sale estimates, but often the intrinsic value of the gems used themselves. Jewels from contemporary designers such as Viren Bhagat in Bombay, Carnet in Hong Kong, Lorenz Baumer in Paris, James de Givenchy in New York and Michele della Valle in Rome, continued to be greatly sought after at auction sales.
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Tags:
Auctions, China, Dubai, Flawless Diamond, Hong Kong, India, Jewelry, Russia, United States
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