Two Colored Diamonds Fetch $10.3M At Christie's Auction
By: Anthony DeMarco
The diamond engagement ring that Kris Humphries gave to Kim Kardashian prior to their ill-fated marriage provided lots of headlines for Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels auction. However, its $749,000 sale price was the 12th highest result in Tuesday’s sale.
The top lots among the 389 lots offered were two fancy colored diamonds. They are:
* An 8.77-carat rectangular-cut fancy intense pink VVS1 diamond that sold for more than $6.3 million, or $721,200 per carat. The buyer was Moussaieff Jewellers, a luxury retail jeweler with stores in London and Geneva.
* A 3.81-carat rectangular-cut fancy vivid blue VS1 diamond that sold for nearly $4 million, or more than $1 million per carat. The buyer requested anonymity.
The other top lots are as follows:
* A 25.30-carat rectangular-cut D color VVS1 diamond that sold for more than $3.1 million.
* An 18.28-carat cushion-cut D color VVS2 diamond that sold for more than $2 million.
* A 15.88-carat cushion-cut Kashmir sapphire that sold for more than $1.8 million.
* A 10.75-carat rectangular-cut D color internally flawless diamond that sold for nearly $1.4 million.
* A 17-carat rectangular-cut F color VS1 diamond ring that sold for more than $1.2 million. The ring was part of Diana Dollar Knowles Collection. Knowles, who died March 4 at the age of 95, was a noted San Francisco philanthropist and patron of the arts.
The auction at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters took in more than $46.6 million with 75 percent of the items sold by lot and 85 percent sold by value.
The sale also was marked by a number of big-ticket items that failed to sell. Among them:
* An 18k pink gold and platinum ring set with a 2.47-carat heart-shaped fancy purple-pink diamond and flanked on either side by a modified heart- shaped fancy intense blue diamond, weighing approximately 1.22 and 1.16 carats. Its high estimate was $1.55 million.
* A 37.20-carat modified pear-shaped fancy deep brown-yellow diamond mounted in 18k rose gold with a high estimate of $800,000.
* An 11.70-carat circular-cut diamond, with the shoulders set with baguette-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum that had a high estimate of $800,000.
