While some people like to do their buying in private, for others there’s nothing like the battleground of the auction room to get the blood racing and the money flowing. Prices at auction are consistently high and even economic worries aren’t enough to stop those with the cash getting their hands on some of the world’s rarest, and most desirable gems and jewelry. While certain items go for a song, these lots from the past few years are worth an entire musical.

 

Sale Goes Pear-Shaped

It was the perfect end to 2009 when an anonymous buyer paid $5.4 million for the 39 carat D color “Evening Star” diamond at a Christie’s auction. The stone, which was so named because its previous owner liked to wear it out at night, fetched $138,000 per carat as part of the "Magnificent Jewels from a Distinguished Private Collector" sale.

 

The sales other notable lots included a modified rectangular-cut fancy intense blue VS1 diamond of 7.02 carats, which an anonymous buyer purchased for $3.89 million, and a 36.78 carat, D color internally flawless diamond, which sold for $3.39 million.

 

Think Pink

Attesting to the power of pink, a 5 carat pink diamond named “The Vivid Pink” sold for $10.78 million at Christie's Hong Kong, setting a world-record price for a pink diamond sold at auction. The cushion-cut, potentially flawless, Type IIa fancy vivid stone was bought by a private Asion buyer, who paid $2.1 million per carat for the privilege. The Vivid Pink was also the most expensive jewel sold at auction in 2009 and helped bring the total for the Magnificent Jewels sale to $48 million.

 

The sale also saw a record price per carat set for a sapphire sold at auction with the $2.4 million sale of a cushion-shaped Kashmir sapphire. The 16.65 carat gem sold for $144,000 per carat.

 

An Auction To Remember

Christie’s auction house dubbed its “Jewels: The New York Sale and the Annenberg Diamond" and "Rare Jewels and Objets d'Art: A Superb Collection" an auction to remember after an anonymous buyer paid $7.7 million for the 32.01 carat, D color, flawless Asscher-cut Annenberg Diamond. The diamond had an estimated sale price of $3-$5 million.

 

The diamond, which had been owned by philanthropist Leonore "Lee" Annenberg – who died in March 2009 aged 91 – was mounted in a ring by Manhattan jeweler David Webb. At a price of $240,000 per carat, it set a new record per carat for a colorless diamond, the auction house said.

 

Flawless Blue Diamond Auctioned for $9.49 Million

In May 2009, a fancy vivid blue, internally flawless, totaling 7.03 carats in size, was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Geneva for $9,488,754, or a whopping $1,349,752 per carat. At the time, it was a record per carat price for an auctioned diamond.

 

The exceptionally rare cushion-shaped diamond was cut from a 26.58 carat piece of rough discovered in 2008 at Petra’s Cullinan mine in South Africa and formed the centerpiece item of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction.

 

According to Petra’s CEO, Johan Dippenaar, the astonishing price the diamond achieved reflected how incredibly rare and collectable such a diamond is to the connoisseur. “The renowned Cullinan mine continues to captivate the world with spectacular diamonds, building on its legacy as the source of some of the world’s most famous gems,” he said.  

 

Onassis Diamond Doubles Estimate

Put the name Onassis and word diamond in a sentence and it’s likely you are talking about something very special. In 2008, a pear-shaped 38 carat D/VVS1 diamond, set in a marquise cut gold and platinum diamond necklace, that once belonged to Christina Onassis, was sold to an unnamed Middle Eastern buyer for $7.1 million. Christie’s, which auctioned the diamond, had given the lot a catalogue estimate of £1.8-2.2 million ($3.5 - $4.3 million).

 

The diamond was just one of several jewelry items offered for sale by the Onassis family. A gem-set bowenite Buddha by Faberge sold for $2.5 million, more than quadrupling early estimates. All in all, the Onassis items made a total of $13.3 million while the auction itself totaled $29.4 million, the largest jewelry auction in Britain’s history.

 

Fancy Green Sells for a Fancy Price While Bigger Proves to be Better

It was a case of a record-breaking number of record-breaking diamond sales at a single auction in May 2008 when the largest diamond ever auctioned in Asia found a buyer and the most expensive fancy green diamond ever offered for sale found a worthwhile home, among other lots.

 

Christie’s auctioned the 101.27 carat shield shaped F / VVS1 diamond for $61,500 per carat to a private buyer at its Jewels: The Hong Kong Sale in a sale totaling $6.21 million.

 

The fancy green 10.36 carat square-shaped fancy green diamond went for $3.485 or $336,500 per carat.

 

Other notable lots included a 16.04 carat circular cut D / potentially flawless diamond, which went for $3.341 million, or $208,500 per carat, which the auction house said was a world record price per carat for a colorless diamond at auction.

 

Another high point was the sale of a pair of emerald, natural pearl and diamond ear pendants, by Etcetera, was sold for $2.409 million, or $126,000 per carat. This was yet another world record price, this time for the price per carat for an emerald at auction. The emeralds were 9.12 and 8.84 carats, and the earrings were formerly the property of the Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia.

 

Graff’s Red Hot Red Diamond Ring

A well-known diamond dealer named Laurence Graff made yet another notable diamond purchase when he purchased an octagonal-shaped fancy purplish-red 2.26 carat diamond ring. At $1,180,340 per carat – with a total hammer price of $2.667 million, the purchase at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva was a world record per carat price for a red diamond.

 

6.04 Carat Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond Sells for $7.98 Million

It took eight minutes of frantic bidding to sell a 6.04 carat, emerald cut IF / fancy vivid blue diamond ring at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong at a 2007 sale. The diamond was sold, after what must have seemed like an eternity for $7,981,835. At $1,321,590 per carat (p/c), the diamond set a record per carat price beating out the previous record of $926,000 p/c for the Hancock Red, a 0.90 carat red diamond sold in 1987.

 

Harry Winston Necklace Sets World Record at Christie's

The Harry Winston name adds prestige to any jewelry piece, and it certainly helped realize a record price for a diamond and pearl necklace back in 2006. The anonymous buyer paid $4,189,320 for the piece Christie's Geneva during its "Magnificent Collection of Jewels and Watches from a Royal House" sale.

 

The auction, comprised of 314 lots, was by all accounts, a lively affair. As Eric Valdieu, head of Christie's Geneva Jewelry Department, said after the sale, “At $31.3M, we have concluded the largest single owner jewelry sale worldwide in the past 15 years and a record for Christie’s… The market showed tremendous depth with top prices for diamonds and natural pearls, the likes of which have never been seen in the auction market."