The 102.39-carat D Flawless oval diamond was sold for US$15.7 million
A highly important 102.39-carat D colour Flawless Oval Diamond was sold for HK$121,562,000 or US$15,694,870 in an unprecedented single-lot live action. Considered a first at an auction for a lot of this importance and inherent value, the diamond was offered without reserve which garnered much interest and a string of bids, going quickly to well over HK$100 million.
Some of the bids were placed online, the highest of which was HK$85 million—also the highest value bid ever placed on a jewel online.
"This extraordinary gem needed no help from a pre-sale estimate or reserve to reach its rightful price—just the instinctive desire of collectors to own one of the earth’s greatest treasures," said Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby's Asia.
Other than its amount, the 102.39-carat diamond is also considered perfect according to every critical criterion available and is the 8th diamond weighing more than 100 carats of D colour to have ever appeared at auction.
See also: Rare D Colour Flawless Diamond To Be Offered At Sotheby's This Autumn
The winning bid though, went to a private collector who named the gem "Maiko star", after his second daughter and will be heading to Japan. Last year, the same collector bought the 88.2-carat "Minami star" at Sotheby's in April 2019 and named it "Minami star" after his eldest daughter.
The sale further solidified Asia as a place of luxury demand. "We are of course delighted with the results and the positive message the sale sends out to the market," said Nir Livnat, chairman of Diacore. "The result is also testament to the maestria of our diamond cutters: Only eight D colour Internally Flawless or Flawless white diamonds over 100 carats ever sold at auction, six of them by Diacore," he adds.
The world-class diamond is perfect according to every criterion and achieved the highest rankings under each of the standards by which the quality of a diamond is judged, ('the four C's). It is D colour, the highest grade for a white diamond, of exception clarity as it is completely flawless both internally and externally, and has excellent polish and symmetry which is the most sought-after grading for the oval shape category.
In July 2019, a 28.86-carat diamond set a new world record for the most expensive jewel ever auctioned online after selling for US$2.1 million. To provide you with a better picture of what expensive jewels ever sold look like, we rounded up a few of them below.
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