RAPAPORT... Diamonds, jewelry and colored stones all sold for solidly strong prices at Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York sales earlier this week. Diamonds 10-carats and over sold extremely well with very strong prices, particularly for those of higher qualities. The shortage of these larger diamonds has driven prices higher as privates and dealers scramble to get their hands on big rocks, which appear to be increasingly difficult to find.  Most diamonds under 10-carats found homes some going for surprisingly high prices, while others were more reasonably priced.

Sotheby’s two part sale tallied $39,608.676,.  The morning session Always in Style, a single owner collection of 233 lots accounted for $4,946,338 and sold 87.1 percent by lot and 90.5 percent by dollar value. Part two of the sale, Magnificent Jewels, with afternoon and evening sessions totaled $34,662,338 for 332 lots and was sold 83.7 percent by lot and 91.7 percent by value. The presale estimate for the two sales combined was $35.3 million.

The top lot of the sale was a 100.17-carat fancy vivid yellow diamond necklace, with 42 Gemological Institute of America certified stones. The necklace sold for $3,554,500 to an Asian private. (View top diamond lots from the Sotheby's sale.)
 
Over at Christie’s, two-days later, the 297 lot sale garnered $41,246,325 and was sold 85 percent by lot and 92 percent by dollar value against a presale estimate of $25 million. It is notable that all top 10 lots of this sale were more than $1 million and eight of those 10 lots were diamonds.

The top lot of this sale was a 28.28-carat D/IF heart shaped diamond pendant suspended from a kite shape diamond with three micro pave diamond discs above it.  The pendant sold for $3,778,500, or $133,000, per carat, against a $3 million estimate to an Asian private.

For full coverage of the Hong Kong Sotheby’s auction and the New York auctions will appear in  the May 2010 issue of Rapaport Diamond Report.