Pink Diamond Snapped Up by Graff for Record $46 Million at Geneva Auction

A pink diamond sold tonight for 45.4 million Swiss francs ($45.6 million) in Geneva, setting a record for any gem sold at auction.

The 24.78-carat emerald-cut stone, offered by Sotheby’s, beat an estimate of 27 million francs to 38 million francs. The buyer was London jewelry dealer Laurence Graff, bidding by telephone. Graded “Fancy Intense Pink” by the Gemological Institute of America, it was being sold by a private collector and hadn’t been seen on the open market since being bought from Harry Winston about 60 years ago, the New York-based auction house said.

“It is the most fabulous diamond I’ve seen in the history of my career and I’m delighted to have bought it,” Graff said in a statement issued by Sotheby’s. He named the gem “The Graff Pink,” the auction house said.

The sale raised 103 million francs, a record for a jewelry auction, Christies said. Demand for rare gems as a portable form of wealth has pushed up prices at recent auctions.

“What makes it so immensely rare is the combination of its exceptional color and purity with the classic emerald-cut,” David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s European and the Middle Eastern jewelry departments, said in a statement before the sale. “It’s a style of cutting normally associated with white diamonds and one that is so highly sought-after when found in rare colors such as pink and blue.”

The price beat the highest for any gemstone, the 16.4 million pounds ($24.3 million) paid for the 35.56-carat grayish- blue “Wittelsbach Diamond” at Christie’s International in London in December 2008. There, the winning bidder was also Graff.

Earlier in the day at Christie’s International’s wine sale, also in Geneva, a 6-liter imperial of Chateau Cheval Blanc’s 1947 vintage sold for 298,500 francs. The price, paid by an unidentified collector, was an auction record for a large-format bottle of wine. An imperial bottle is the size of eight standard bottles.

Wine Estimate

Described by Christie’s wine specialist, Michael Ganne, as “probably the only known existing ‘imperial’” of the red Bordeaux, it had been expected to fetch between 150,000 francs and 250,000 francs. Cheval Blanc’s famously port-like 1947 vintage is regarded by some connoisseurs as the greatest wine of the 20th century.

The auction record for a standard-sized 75-centiliter bottle of wine was set at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Oct. 29 when three bottles of Chateau Lafite’s 1869 vintage each sold for HK$1.8 million ($230,000). All three were bought by the same Asian telephone bidder, said Sotheby’s.

(source:bloomberg.com)