GENEVA – A flawless 163 ct clear diamond fetched about $34-million at Christie’s in Geneva on Tuesday evening.
The diamond, the centerpiece of an asymmetric gem-studded necklace designed by Fawaz Gruosi, founder of Geneva jeweler De Grisogono, was the largest of its kind ever auctioned.
“I am disappointed that the Art of De Grisogono didn’t sell for a more dazzling price,” said Tobias Kormind, head of 77Diamonds.com, a London-based online jeweler, in a statement. The stone is 40% bigger than a diamond Sotheby’s sold in 2013 for about $31-million, he said. “This is a worrying sign for the top end of the diamond market.”
A team of 10 specialists in New York cut the jewel from a rough 404 ct stone discovered last year in Angola, the biggest diamond ever found in that country. The necklace is made of 18 diamonds on one side and two rows of pear-shaped emeralds on the other. It took more than 1 700 hours to create.
The Geneva fall auction season concludes Wednesday, when Sotheby’s will auction a pink diamond estimated to be worth as much as $30-million.
Sotheby’s holds the record for the most expensive diamond ever auctioned, having sold the 59.6 ct Pink Star for $71-million to Hong Kong-based jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook.