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RAPAPORT... History was made this evening at Sotheby's autumn sale of magnificent jewels in Geneva when the Pink Star, renamed the Pink Dream, a 59.60-carat, internally flawless fancy vivid pink, type IIa diamond sold for $83,187,381, or $1,395,761 per carat, a new world auction record for any diamond or jewel. It was purchased by diamond-cutter Isaac Wolf.
Sotheby's auction also set a new world record in total for achieving the highest jewelry sale in history at $199,512,930 against a presale estimate of $112.5 million to $153 million. 
In a salesroom exploding with anticipation and packed with trade, private buyers and media from all over the world, the winning bid for the pink diamond came after a heart-stopping bidding duel between Wolf and another buyer.
The pink diamond originated from a 132.50-carat rough diamond that was recovered by De Beers in 1999 and then cut and polished by Steinmetz Diamonds over a period of two years into its present form. The diamond was first unveiled as the Steinmetz Pink in Monaco in 2003 and then it was sold and renamed in 2007.
Numerous other records were broken during the sale, which recorded extremely strong prices for colored and colorless diamonds, colored stones, natural pearls and fine signed jewels.
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