A spectacular and rare orange diamond, the largest known gem of its kind, was on Tuesday auctioned for a record $35.54 million in Geneva.
“It’s a world record price for an orange diamond, it’s a world record price per carat for any coloured diamond,” the Christie’s auction house said of the sale.
The price works out at USD 2.4 million per carat, beating the previous record of USD 2.15 million for the Vivid Pink Diamond sold in Hong Kong in 2009. The man who made the purchase swiftly got up and left the room to a round of applause. Christie’s did not reveal his identity.
The deep orange gemstone, found in South Africa, weighs a whopping 14.82 carats. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has handed it the top rating for coloured diamonds: “fancy vivid”.
Pure orange diamonds, also known as “fire diamonds”, are extremely uncommon and few have been auctioned, with the largest never more than six carats.
In other expesive things news, eleven white truffles have gone under the hammer in Italy for 274,200 EUR (367,620 USD), including a pair bought by an anonymous buyer in China who paid out 90,000 EUR (121,210 USD), auctioneers said Monday.
A “famous Chinese writer” bidding by satellite telephone from Hong Kong fiercely outbid competitors for a 950-gram pair of truffles, organisers said, paying three times the price of gold for the white delicacy.
repost AFP-relaxnews