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Auctions
Color Diamonds Rule
Fancy color pink and blue diamonds stole the headlines at the Geneva auctions.
By Francesco Rosa
In contrast to previous years, the jewelry auctions in Geneva this autumn presented smaller sales in terms of the total number of lots on offer. Yet both Sotheby’s and Christie’s recorded extremely high overall totals. There were very vigorous prices for color diamonds and reassuring results for unique large white diamonds. And there was an overall great appetite for signed and fine jewels of all periods, provided they were fresh to the market with appealing estimates. “We have very often had sales of almost 500 lots, and there were only 341 lots tonight, so we reduced the volume but we kept the quality up, to such an extent that nearly 90 percent of the lots sold,” observed David Bennett, chairman Switzerland and worldwide chairman of Sotheby’s jewelry division. In the lead-up to the sales, the viewings at both houses saw great participation from the international trade. According to a top dealer, who wished to remain anonymous, Sotheby’s had a very “genuine and juicy” sale, while Christie’s had a “more compact sale with no conflicting lots.” Nonetheless, “Goods were still well priced at both auction houses, so dealers were going from one exhibition to another just because they had to study the goods. They could not let the goods sell at the low estimate; they knew they had to bid,” observed veteran dealer Eric Valdieu of Valdieu Fine Arts, former head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva.
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The following day, the great number of international dealers present throughout auction week was back for more action at Sotheby’s. Again, most private buyers preferred bidding via the phone or online. Sotheby’s held a three-session sale, with several auctioneers alternating at the helm of the rostrum. By the end of the evening session, sweetened by the presence of glamorous models who were wearing the top lots on offer, Sotheby’s had achieved an impressive grand total, of $136,428,215, with a very high sold-by-lot value of 87.4 percent. Previously, Sotheby’s May sale had garnered $175 million from 488 lots offered, while their November 2015 sale had totaled $139 million from 495 lots on offer. The top lot was an emerald cut, fancy intense pink, VVS1 diamond ring weighing 17.07 carats, which sold to Graff Diamonds for $20,778,352, or $1,217,244 per carat. Graff also scooped up the third top-selling lot, a pear-shaped fancy intense pink, internally flawless diamond weighing 13.2 carats, which sold for $16,232,308, or $1,229,720 per carat.The second top lot of the evening was The Sky Blue Diamond, a square-cut fancy vivid blue VVS1 diamond weighing 8.01 carats, set in a Cartier diamond ring (shown below). It sold to an anonymous phone buyer for $17,074,168, or $2,131,606 per carat. Three new color diamond auction records were set. For deep blue, an oval VVS1 7.74-carat diamond, which sold for $13,706,728, or $1,770,895 per carat; for light pink, a pear-shaped VVS2 40.3-carat diamond, which sold to Samer Halimeh of New York for $7,533,088, or $186,925 per carat and for light blue: a modified rectangular step-cut, VVS1 6.08 carat diamond, which sold for $2,167,634, or $134,803 per carat. Overall, eight out of ten of the top-selling lots were pink or blue diamonds. “All the color diamonds in the top ten were from private collections, I think that was why they did so well, because they were absolutely fresh to the market, most of them having been bought in the 1960s and ’70s,” commented David Bennett, adding, “The top two fancy intense pink diamonds were an unmodified emerald-cut and an unmodified pear-shape, which were both cut like a white diamond, which is very rare nowadays, so they were perfect for auction.” * All prices include buyer’s premium. *All prices include buyer’s premium.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2016. To subscribe click here.
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