MOSCOW – The most expensive diamond ever polished in Russia, named Dynasty after the Romanov-era Imperial Court, failed to sell in an auction.
Alrosa said it didn’t receive a high enough offer for the 51.4-carat gem in a November 29 online auction. The stone has the best so-called triple excellence cutting quality, a characteristic Alrosa says is shared by less than 1% of all gems ever cut.
Other gems in the collection, named Sheremetyev, Orlov, Vorontsov and Usupov after Russia’s noble families, sold at an average premium of 30% to reserve prices, Alrosa said, without disclosing prices.
The company now plans to hold a separate auction to sell Dynasty. As many as 130 bidders had registered to buy the stones, cut from a 179-ct rough diamond found in 2015.
Alrosa was hoping to get at least $10-million for the whole collection, CEO Sergey Ivanov said in August.
The auction is a rarity for the Russian miner, which specializes in digging up diamonds, but not polishing them. Ivanov, who took the job earlier this year, has said that the miner won’t fully expand into the cutting business, but will polish any unique stones.
Earlier this week, a 14.93-ct pink diamond ring sold for about $32-million at Christie’s in Hong Kong.