Famous Diamond Sold For Record $71.2 Million

(RTTNews) - Auction house Sotheby's (BID) has sold a giant pink diamond for $71.2 million in Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting a world record for the most expensive diamond or jewel to be sold at an auction.

The Pink Star, weighing 59.60 carats, is the largest polished diamond ever to go on the auction block.

The oval-shaped diamond was bought by Hong Kong-based jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook for HK$553.04 million after a five-minute contest that included three bidders. The sale price includes the buyer's premium, or auction house charge.

The previous record for the most expensive polished diamond was held by the Oppenheimer Blue, which was sold for $58 million at a Christie's auction in Geneva last May.

In 2013, Pink Star was sold for a record $83 million at a Sotheby's auction in Geneva. However, the gem was reclaimed by Sotheby's after the buyer, New York-based diamond cutter Isaac Wolf, defaulted on the deal.

The Pink Star was estimated to be worth more than $60 million. It is the largest internally flawless, fancy vivid pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America has ever graded.

The GIA has stated that the diamond is natural. Of all fancy colored pink diamonds, those graded 'Fancy Vivid' are the most precious and desirable.

The Pink Star was mined by De Beers in 1999 in South Africa and weighed 132.5 carat in the rough. It was then meticulously cut by Steinmetz Diamonds over a period of nearly two years.

The diamond was first unveiled to the public in May 2003 as the "Steinmetz Pink," and was modeled by Danish model Helena Christensen at a dedicated event thrown to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix.

In the summer of 2003, the gem was part of an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, alongside the famous 45.52 carat blue Hope Diamond. It was also displayed in 2005 at the Natural History Museum in London.

The stone was first sold in 2007 and was subsequently renamed "The Pink Star".

The previous world auction record for a pink diamond is the 24.78 carat Graff Pink, which sold at Sotheby's Geneva in November 2010 for $46.16 million.