RAPAPORT... Sotheby’s garnered $54 million from its Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels auction, with two bracelets stealing the show.
A diamond and rock-crystal bracelet by Cartier, featuring a pear-shaped, 63.66-carat, D-color, internally flawless diamond, brought in $6 million, Sotheby’s said Wednesday. The piece, which took nearly 2,000 hours to create, was originally estimated to fetch up to $8.4 million at the April 20 auction. Meanwhile, the Circle of Happiness, a jadeite bangle weighing 277.67 carats, sold for $3.9 million.
Other notable items included an emerald-cut, 39.88-carat, D-flawless, type IIa diamond, which achieved $3.6 million, below its $3.9 million low estimate. A necklace containing 47 jadeite beads, diamonds and rubies went for $3 million, while a pair of imperial-green jadeite earrings sold for $895,080, generating a record for a cabochon imperial green jadeite at $35,101 per carat.
However, several of the top items on offer failed to find buyers. Those included a pair of unmounted, pear-shaped, D-flawless, type IIa diamonds valued at up to $7.7 million. A 7-carat, fancy-intense-purplish-pink diamond ring created by Sotheby’s Diamonds with a high estimate of $7.1 million also went unsold, as did a 23.48-carat, fancy-deep-pinkish-orange diamond ring with a high valuation of $6.3 million.
Sotheby’s held the sale as a hybrid event featuring advanced online bidding in addition to a live auction. Some 62% of bidders participated online, with 50% of items receiving bids in advance.
Image: The Cartier diamond and rock-crystal bracelet. (Sotheby’s)
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