RAPAPORT...
Global buying boosts the bottom line for the Geneva auctions, while a blue diamond sets a record-breaking price at Sotheby’s.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s held their usual spring sales in Geneva in May but the events were worlds apart in scope…and in mood. Although they were both gathering jewelry in the shadow of the global financial meltdown, Sotheby’s was able to secure a collection of some of the best diamonds, period jewelry and notable signed pieces seen at auction in any season.
The result was a sale totaling $35.7 million, topped by the headline-grabbing fancy vivid blue diamond that brought a record-shattering $9,488,754*. Also included in Sotheby’s 346-lot, three-session sale was a single-owner collection of traditional designs from the best-known names of the1940s through the 1980s, including Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari and David Webb.
This group alone fetched $7.1 million. Rounding out the offerings, a group of jewels of “noble” provenance, from royal European families, brought a total of $4.7 million. Together with the remainder of the Magnificent Jewels sale, Sotheby’s wide-ranging offering had something for every taste and recorded a grand total of $47.5 million for the day’s sales.
Christie’s, on the other hand, was unable to source significant jewelry. Its 193-lot sale realized $19,586,628, with half of the value coming almost entirely from white diamonds. Without a single-owner collection or a notable focus, the sale trailed Sotheby’s in tone as well as value. Yet the sale of six D-color diamonds proved that the market is still hungry for fine diamonds. Top lot of this sale, a D flawless rectangular cut diamond weighing 30.52 carats, estimated to bring $2.5 million, was sold for $3,173,394, or $104,000 per carat. Eric Valdieu, head of Christie’s Swiss Jewelry Department, said, “There were three bidders, from different parts of the world. None of them had seen the stone in person. This is a sign of confidence,” he added, as well as a benefit of certification.
It may also reflect an urge of people with money to put their funds into hard goods. With stock certificates, hedge funds and such lately proving in some instances to be of less value than the ink used to print them, some buyers prefer the enduring value of fine gems and signed jewelry.
Sotheby’s David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s International Jewelry for Europe and the Middle East, clearly had the Midas touch in putting this sale together. Bennett said he is usually optimistic, basing his feeling in part on history.
“We’re been through this before,” he said, referring to the current recession, and he has seen jewelry rebound, just as it did in Sotheby’s sale.
Still, it was a sign of tremendous confidence to put the 7.03-carat fancy vivid blue, internally flawless cushion-shaped diamond into the sale with an estimate of $5.8 million to $8.5 million. The newly cut stone was taken as a 26.58-carat rough from the historic Cullinan mine of South Africa, known to produce blues.
Bidding on this diamond was expected to be intense, based on the enthusiastic reception it received at viewings, according to Bennett. “It drew interest from all over the world,” he said. Bids were in increments of 50,000 Swiss francs — approximately $45,000. It took 15 minutes to knock the stone down, culminating in $9,488,754, a record price for any gemstone sold at auction, as well as the highest price for a fancy vivid blue diamond sold at auction. The new owner, Joseph Lau Luen-Hung, a private collector from Hong Kong, has named the diamond “Star of Josephine.”
The second most expensive lot at Sotheby’s Geneva sale was a fancy intense pink pear-shaped diamond weighing 5.29 carats. It sold for $2,048,508 to Leviev, the diamond entrepreneur. The stone was certified as Type IIa by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), with VS2 clarity.
The depth of Sotheby’s sale was shown in the top ten lots, where jewelry also found buyers with deep pockets, chiefly among them the European trade and a European collector. The latter picked up a Harry Winston ring, circa 1975, set with a diamond weighing 22.30 carats. The marquise-shaped diamond, graded D, VVS1, was set in a ring and sold for $1,592,983.
The cover lot of the single-owner sale, a bracelet by Harry Winston, dated 1968, and set with Burmese and Ceylon sapphires and rows of round diamonds, was purchased for $1,390,527, double the high estimate. The matched step cut sapphires are a rarity on their own, and carried the day, even though the bracelet was unsigned. It is, however, illustrated in the book, Harry Winston: the Ultimate Jeweler.
A member of the American trade took one of the top ten lots, a pair of Harry Winston diamond pendant earrings. The pair exemplified the Winston style: finest diamonds with a minimal setting. They sold for $1,289,299. Five of the top ten lots were Harry Winston jewels from the single-owner collection. Bennett attributed the overall success of the auction to the appearance of goods that were fresh to the market, with superb provenance.
Christie’sChristie’s top ten list was made up almost entirely of single diamonds, six of them D color. The sole exception was a cushion-shaped Burmese sapphire set in a ring. The 33.23-carat stone was picked up by London dealer Laurence Graff for $443,120. Graff also bought a rectangular diamond, D color VS1, weighing 20.46 carats for $1,991,743, well above the presale estimate.
The top lot went to an anonymous bidder who paid $3,173,394 for a D flawless diamond weighing 30.52 carats. A diamond of almost equal weight, 30.70 carats, also D color and internally flawless, brought a far lower price per carat. The stone sold for $2,608,257 to the American trade and, according to Valdieu, will certainly be recut. “The pear shape stone was not so well cut,” he said, accounting for the difference in price.
For both houses, buying has become a global business and this has helped the sellers during this uncertain economy. Valdieu spelled out the geography at play in Christie’s sale: “Half the value of the sale went to European buyers, 22 percent to the Far East, 10 percent to the Middle East and 20 percent to Americans. There was strong participation from the Far East, compared to the past two or three sales.”
The strength of the Far East market, particularly Mainland China and Indonesia, is thanks to the vigorous efforts of Vickie Sek, Christie’s dynamo department head in Hong Kong. Her clients are now buying globally, as could be seen in the top-ten list in Geneva. Asian privates bought a rectangular cut, fancy intense yellow, VVS2 diamond weighing 57.02 carats for $1,213,761, just above the high estimate, as well as a pear-shaped D color, internally flawless diamond weighing 7.54 carats for $575,229, just below the high estimate. A member of the Asian trade bought a rectangular cut I to J color, VS diamond of 26.59 carats for $509,174, exactly at the high end of the estimate.
These sales prove that there are customers for the right goods. They also show that getting the right goods can be more difficult than selling them. In the jewelry auction world, the pendulum seems to swing from Christie’s to Sotheby’s and back again. This May, it was very much on Sotheby’s side.
*All prices include buyer’s premium.
Auction Results
Sotheby’s
Total: $35,762,327
Lots offered: 346
Lots sold: 266
Sold by lot: 76.9 percent
Sold by value: 91.3 percent
Christie’s
Total: $19,586,628
Lots offered: 193
Lots sold: 127
Sold by lot: 66 percent
Sold by value: 81 percent
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - June 2009. To subscribe click here.